Monday, April 20, 2009

Smart Meters

Last Friday, on my way to the airport, I heard the Wall Street Journal Report on Smart Metering.  This "new" technology is going to allow Power Supply Company and home owners have more information about energy usage and allow them to shut down high usage appliances during peak energy demands.

Well, I have had a "Smart Meter" on my home for about two (2) years.  Mid Ohio Energy Cooperative began installing these meters, which allow them to send usage information back to the cooperative each month.  But before that, I have had a device on my electric water heater for more than ten years that allowed the cooperative to shut down my water heater via radio control during high peak demand.  This is not new technology, just technology that is now coming to the for front.  It is very interesting that those of us that live in the country, have had energy management devices for many years, because our user owned cooperatives wanted to save us money, reduce demand during high rate and peak usage times, thus again saving energy and money.  Now, it seems that everyone is interested in these items.

What I find very interesting is during a Google search in the Lima Ohio area for searches for Home Automation, Energy Management, Home theater, Lighting Control etc., there were very few searches, in fact, Google listed them as 0 when reporting their searches.  Even widening the coverage area, produced only a 4 to 5 for any of the above keywords.

Take one example, lighting control.  If the home owner would just install inexpensive wall box dimmers, they could save energy and reduce their electric bill.  At the web site http://www.digitaltips.org/networking/lightingControl.asp,  a complete listing of different lighting control options is available.

Elite Systems Solutions has many options to allow the home owner the ability to control their energy usage.  What do you think?  Let me know

...bringing Technology home!