Plugwise announced its new ZigBee Smart Sockets which together with PlugWise Stick USB mesh network transmitter / receiver and PlugWise software can give you a full control under energy consumption in your home. Except that you’ll able to manage sockets remotely. Thanks to wireless technology ZigBee.
Each Smart Socket is £35 and USB transmitter/receiver is £40.
[via AutomatedHome]
AlertMe announced new version of its home energy management products and services. Now Energy Starter Kit will include Colour Display unit but the price will be still the same – £49.99. The same kit but without display will costs just £29.99. To see the measurement data a new iPhone application can be used. It allows to you to save money and have possibility to see energy consumption directly on your smartphone.
Also note then AlertMe is an official partner of Google’s service PowerMeter. So, you can monitor energy consumption online from any Internet-enabled PC.
Another interesting information is about possibility to measure gas and water consumption. As I understand it’s just a matter of connection specific sensor to the system (I suppose it should be ZigBee device). If so, you’ll full information about energy, gas and water consumption in one place.
Finally Google announced the first device for its new service PowerMeter – TED 5000. It’s really good choice. The TED 5000 has everything to be the best energy consumption monitor. It’s split by three parts – measurement module, network gateway and display. In case of using Google’s service the display is not needed. The network gateway will allow to connect to the PowerMeter and send the measurement data there.
The current price of TED 5000 – $200, including measurement module and network gateway, is quite reasonable. And probably it’ll be cheaper when the PowerMeter will be open for the users. I hope that the European version will be produced as well. Because as I understand the current version is suitable for US only.
If you care about environment and your electricity bill but always forget to switch off unnecessary light using SmartSwitch is an one way to solve that situation. It’d designed to give user feedback about a value of personal or communal electrical usage. If that value reached predefined maximum than the SmartSwitch is physically harder to use, thanks to a brake pad inside the mechanism and built-in microprocessor. As result the user will always remember to turn off unnecessary light and electronic devices.
The SmartSwitch fits into standard electrical boxes and data communication occurs through the electrical lines using X11 protocol.
Right after Google’s PowerMeter Microsoft launched its own service – Hohm. Both services provide more or less the same functionality – view energy consumption for the specific period in different formats such tables or charts, possibility to export the data, some recommendations to decrease utility bill and carbon emission. Also the services includes a social networking part which allows to share your statistics with your family and friends.
But the ways how PowerMeter and Hohm get data are completely different. Google together with General Electric started developing of power meter device. Instead of that Microsoft is making partnerships with utility companies to get measurement from them. Sure for US is maybe good and easy way. But for the rest of world – no. Google’s approach is more generic. So, in my opinion it has more chances to score big successes!
