A little bit more about the Yello Google PowerMeter interface for Sparzähler online.  The utility has videos on its web promotion page, as well as a YouTube channel, including a video that shows the user experience on the home computer in more detail. The start page also features an advert with ...

The Edenbee blog has a post today about a sweet-looking smart meter (designed by IDEO) from German utility company Yello Strom, that integrates with Google PowerMeter and Twitter.  While it may not seem very practical to stream energy data through Twitter, it's offerings like this, that open up the energy data stream, ...

Yet another energy awareness savvy article appears this weekend in the New York Times.  It discusses the powerful motivator of friendly competition to modify energy use behavior.  When people have a notion of normal behavior, they tend to change what they do. Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, studies ...

The Times reported today on energing business and engineering units within Google.org dedicated to green energy.  Some lines in particular piqued my interest: In recent weeks, Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, has hinted at the company’s broad interest in the energy business. He also joined Jeffrey R. Immelt, General ...

Spend any time researching the current field of home energy monitoring products and you're very likely to see mention of the Kill-A-Watt, a device from P3 International. The Kill-A-Watt can read the energy use of an appliance plugged into it, and is marketed as a tool for identifying the ...

Houston Chronicle photos Two recent front-page articles in mainstream city newspapers covered the emergence of smart metering in Texas. I think it's a good indication that these technologies and devices are nearing the mainstream here. The Austin American-Statesman covered the installation from the perspective of utility efficiency ...

Posted by Kyra Edeker The Victoria, Australia government is running an ad pitching conservation by depicting an average household's production of greenhouse gases. Black balloons sprouting from appliances, lamps and electronics each represent 50g of greenhouse emissions. The quiet commercial feels slightly sinister, with the dark balloons sprouting out of the empty house. It's an ...

Harry Ward’s prototype for his Orb energy monitor is an example of a simple and attractive device for monitoring real-time energy home use. Dan Lockton writes about the Orb on his blog, Architectures of Control: Design with Intent: Recent design graduate Harry Ward’s Orb energy monitor is especially attractive: a toroidal ...