There are quite a few devices like this on the market (though, mostly in Europe, so far) and in R&D. We’re going to talk about as many of them as we can, here on the blog. One of my goals here is to look at these new types of information appliances and encourage a conversation that will lead to more, and better.

Definitely feel free to write up cool things you have found, along these lines, here.

Here’s the device Joe writes about:

http://www.theenergydetective.com/index.html

In Seattle I lived in an apartment that had its meter just outside the door and I would peek at how fast or slow it was spinning based on having my computers and stereo on versus having everything shut down. But the specific metrics on that meter didn’t tell me much beyond the obvious that my toys use a lot of juice.

I think it would be interesting to put this raw, live consumption data into something that the average person can understand. Perhaps something that could at a glance show current consumption against a monthly “budget”.

So, if I understand correctly, the smaller bar that is between 25 & 20 was located between 20 & 15 five minutes before the picture was taken. If that’s true, that makes some sense, though I still wonder why the designers chose a right-to-left orientation rather than left-to-right.

I found a page that has a good breakdown of how the other screen works, including comparison with an older design:

http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-how.htm

This screen is toggled on by tapping “Energy” on the Consumption screen.

I also notice that little car symbol in some of the time intervals, with the legend (under “Consumption”) indicating that “[car] = 50Wh Regenerated.”

What is the significance of regenerating 50Wh? Is the idea to indicate how much energy you are making, alongside what you are using?