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A challenge for all inventive Gadget Masters out there - harness the newly found power of a Google power management widget.
The uber search giant has just announced a UK angle for the Google PowerMeter, a free software tool that provides information on how much electricity your home is using.
Apparently, the software can receive information from smart meters, and other in-home energy management devices, and visualises the results. These can be displayed in a widget on a personalised iGoogle homepage. The uber search giant has just announced a UK angle for the Google PowerMeter, a free software tool that provides information on how much electricity your home is using.
Google has now unveiled its first UK utility partnership, and its first UK device partner, that's first:utility and AlertMe, respectively.
To date, states Google, first:utility has 30,000 customers signed up to its service and from "early November", all of them with smart meters will be able to sign up to use Google PowerMeter.
AlertMe, is a self-install consumer device manufacturer and, similarly, customers in the UK will be able to access their home's data.
"In just a few minutes consumers can access their home energy data from anywhere they can access the Internet," said Pilgrim Beart, CEO of AlertMe. "Our partnership with Google PowerMeter puts your home energy consumption right in front of you every time you go online."
See also: Power and Energy Monitor Meter competition
Comments (3)
The problem for Gadget Masters is that Google haven't released details of the API for this "free" software to hobbyists or third-party developers. The only way to get this "free" software is to purchase a device from one of a couple of select partners.
The hype surrounding Google Powermeter is good marketing for the small number of companies Google have partnered with but little help to anyone else. Gadget Masters building or adapting their own devices would be better off looking for freeware graph plotting utilities.
Posted by Dr. Paul | October 30, 2009 8:48 AM
Posted on October 30, 2009 08:48
Google Powermeter won't be of any use to gadget masters until Google release the API for general use. At the moment the software is only free if you buy one of the few devices which Google have partnered with. Neither home constructors nor third party device manufacturers have any access to the software.
Posted by Marc Bright | October 30, 2009 6:02 PM
Posted on October 30, 2009 18:02
Fair points, Marc and Dr. Paul.
The utility does have 30,000 customers, but in the grand scheme of things that's not many people.
However, most things start small, and anything Google turns its attentuion to is worth noting - I wasn't even aware of the software before the announcement, tbh.
It seems a bit left-field for Google, but I know they are big on energy conservation, internally, as a company. And of course, the power effiiency of data centres is an increasing concern for them.
Posted by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com | November 3, 2009 1:19 PM
Posted on November 3, 2009 13:19