The house that Twitters its energy use
Expanding geekdom.
Can Twitter help you turn your lights off? IBM’s “Master Inventor” Andy Stanford-Clark has rigged up his home to twitter its energy use, and if you follow the tweets you can see in real time when Stanford-Clark has turned his lights and fountain off or on and whether he has an “unusually high electricity use” or has reduced power consumption.
It’s not as weird as it sounds. The Twitter stream is an exercise in using the data from home automation feeds, and the hope is that, by making energy usage data transparent and easy to digest, it will change consumer behavior and reduce energy consumption. The former Flash guys at GreenBox are working on using the same type of info for their energy management software, as are startups Agilewaves, and Lucid Design Group.
So, what’s Andy House doing now? Go look: Its electricity meter reading is 31,400 kWh. It’s strangely addicting.
Well, I still don’t find Twitter addicting. But, saving energy through sensible home design and communications? Every little bit helps.
Posted: Sun - May 4, 2008 at 08:40 AM