Thinking Smartly About Home Energy Management
Posted on October 11, 2011 by Jeff Maslow
Tags, Consumers and Utility Customers, Emerging Technologies
We’ve all welcomed new gadgets into our homes over the years that have promised to make our lives better. Advances in web-based technology have brought automation and ease to household chores like paying the bills, and smart phones have exponentially expanded the ways in which we use our mobile phones. An emerging line of technologies now combines the power of wireless internet and automated multi-tasking to offer energy-saving potential for your residence that can make life a little easier and save money in the process. More importantly, these technologies can provide a real-time answer to the burning question on the minds of many Oregonians: “Why is the energy bill so high?”
Home energy management systems allow residential customers to manage and control their home energy usage profile by utilizing small control units known as energy dashboards, programmable thermostats with wireless connections, and “smarter” appliances. Customer-empowering technologies like these now make home energy management and its resulting cost savings fun and interactive. An array of these systems has already arrived at local electronics retailers in Oregon.
Examples of home energy management systems currently available on the market include wireless programmable thermostats bundled with sockets and strips for plug-in appliances that the customer desires to control. A dashboard panel, often in the form of a touch screen display, allows for the customer to establish pre-set schedules to create settings for day, nighttime, and away periods. The wireless capabilities of various programmable thermostats on the market enable customers to communicate with the home energy system via the web or smart phone and make the desired adjustments on the fly.
The guiding principle behind energy management systems is customer empowerment. The goal is to provide the customer with the ability to micromanage every aspect of home energy use. The technology provides detailed knowledge of the home energy profile from the energy used by individual appliances, from the household refrigerator to the flat screen TV. A real-time display can allow customers to view the energy consumption of various appliances and reduce energy use according to their habits, such as programming a thermostat temperature or directing appliances to power down at night. The end result is a new level of transparency for energy consumption, which can result in an estimated 10-15% in additional energy savings from enhancing customer control alone. The customer sees precisely what goes into their energy bill well before it arrives in the mail.
Automated energy management has also emerged as the central feature of many home energy management systems. Several companies have partnered with utilities on pilot projects to implement services that automatically manage electricity use based on weather patterns and home energy use patterns for upcoming days for a relatively low monthly fee. These pilots have achieved an average of 20–30% in energy savings per home without any changes in customer comfort or behavior—savings that can be realized without requiring any deliberate action or thought from the customer. While not yet available everywhere, like many other customer-enabling energy management system technologies, this service has the potential to help customers realize the benefits of energy and cost savings and not having to worry about making adjustments later.
On October 21st, 2011, CUB will be hosting a conference in partnership with the University of Oregon called Smart Grid: Today’s Regulation and Tomorrow’s Technology. We’ll be devoting an afternoon panel session to discussing home energy management and the Smart Grid with Jeff Lyng of Opower, Pat Egan of PacifiCorp, and Josh Skov of Good Company. CUB’s Legal Counsel, Catriona McCracken, will be moderating, and we invite interested energy professionals to attend this conference.
Energy management systems are an exciting movement in making the energy grid and residential distribution system smarter and more transparent. These advances can empower residential consumers to manage and control the electricity they use—and offer an informative leap toward managing high energy bills.
Other posts in our series on Smart Grid: Why Smart Grid Advocates Should Learn About Utility Regulation, and Electric Vehicles Continue to Emerge in Oregon.
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03/27/17 | 0 Comments | Thinking Smartly About Home Energy Management