Google, in its continuous effort to help us all go green, has started to rollout Google PowerMeter.PowerMeter is a Google gadget that will help you regulate your homes power usage. The idea is simple, if you can monitor and measure your own power usage then you will be able to help reduce your utility bill by observing where you are wasting energy.
Google has teamed up with a list of power providers that have begun installing new smart meters that when paired with PowerMeter allow the user to observe their power usage. The initial list of participating companies is as follows:
• San Diego Gas & Electric® (California)
• TXU Energy (Texas)
• JEA (Florida)
• Reliance Energy (India)
• Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin)
• White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri)
• Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada)
• Glasgow EPB (Kentucky)
The devices will soon be available to millions of users who will hopefully take advantage of this technology to help reduce strain on the power grids. The consumer can also see a direct result of their efforts to reduce their energy usage by having their utility bills each month be lowered.
Hopefully more providers will jump onto the smart meter bandwagon so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of monitoring their own power. It's these types of small improvements that can vastly reduce our carbon footprint when adopted on a wide scale.
LOL, Same here dude, Hydro Quebec "powerful stuff" !!!
The one's the government want to roll out are provided by the power companies and send the data to the utility supplier so they can use the statistics for all sorts of things
The one's the government want to roll out are provided by the power companies and send the data to the utility supplier so they can use the statistics for all sorts of things
Is there anyway to collect the information from those to use on stats?
I'll be dead by then... maybe
Way to go Government - make MORE people redundant :/
The idea is simple; if they can monitor and measure your power usage then they will be able to control your utility usage by observing where you are "wasting" energy.
This isn't paranoia, its very much in the works. By they I mean government.
Green equals fascism anymore and I'm getting damn sick of it. Typical of these types of movements, they overstep and ruin any good they could have done.
Quit making stuff up and loosen the tinfoil hat, your brain needs the oxygen.
Last edited by FloatingFatMan on 20 May 2009 - 15:57
The idea is simple; if they can monitor and measure your power usage then they will be able to control your utility usage by observing where you are "wasting" energy.
This isn't paranoia, its very much in the works. By they I mean government.
Green equals fascism anymore and I'm getting damn sick of it. Typical of these types of movements, they overstep and ruin any good they could have done.
if they do control us in any way, they would have to do it in a pretty subliminal way, because all this thing does is show us our energy usage... i mean its not impossible to slip in some 'messages' in this, but lets face it, if we use less electricity, we pay less fair and square...
btw your not a true tinfoil hatter unless you are off the grid entirely
I love it when people such as yourself preach from your pulpit to the "uneducated masses", as if your words of wisdom are going to cause some profound change, only to make yourself look foolish in the process. It would help your cause a great deal to refrain from labeling people and their ideas with such strong and degrading words. Terms such as "idiots", "stupid" and "morons" are obviously insulting, and aren't going to be helpful in convincing others to follow your advice.
Are you disputing whether carbon/carbon dioxide exists?
In two sentences next to each other you contradict yourself.
Just like laws and regulations, eh?
Unsurprisingly, the President of the US has a lot to do. As does Al Gore. They have to travel, it's part of their job. If they both lived in the wilderness as hippies, I don't think they'd do very well. There's a balance of what you want to do, and what you can do.
Anyway, I don't think they'd tell lorry drivers not to drive a lorry. But they'd tell the company running them to get more fuel efficient lorries, and try and cut down the number of journeys.
i think that , while what they are doing to us is bad, what we are doing to the environment is far worse...
Our Wattson is sat in the window sill, and my consumption is costing me ÂŁ384/year
Does the job just as well, if not better.
My sentences are not contradictory. "Going Green" implies you throw away something that works perfectly good for something that is new and is "better for the environment". It would however be better for the environment to use up the total potential of an item then replace it with a more efficient one. I can be for the environment and not for the green movement at the same time. I just know through research that what we are doing isn't doing what Al Gore and the president of ours is preaching. Sure they have to travel some. Al Gore does not. He doesn't need a mansion either or the light bill of a small city. I know there is no convinsing you b/c you all have been brain washed.
I do think people such as yourselves who buy into that crap are morons and don't do the research. I've been doing to backup my beliefs my whole life. It's not belittling you at all. Just how I feel. You too see it fit to try to belittle me. I don't care I just laugh!
I buy recycled paper towels even though they cost more. Does that make me green or stupid?
Ok, I also drive and get coffee in paper cups, am I still green?
I try not to waste water and electricity...now what am I?
Here's a great example of "going green". I used to throw everything away in the garbage. Now I have a recycling box for paper/plastic and one for glass. The extra effort it takes for me to recycle is extending my arm another few inches. The amount of waste saved is worth that effort. To me, anyway.
If you can't be bothered to think beyond yourself then that's fine. But if you're going to laugh at people who are at least making an effort then you have a whole lot of growing up to do. Get started.
Just don't relate this powermeter to being green and take it as simply another way to monitor electric usage.
Study how nature works before educating other people about being "green".
Maybe then you won't compare breathing with fossil fuels...
It's a brand new power meter, it replaces your existing one on the main line coming into your house.. it uses basicaly a broadband power line connection (no internet needed) to send the data back to your power company then they aggregate it and share it with you via the internet
The human population has always been expanding; Humanities need for energy has always been expanding, by switching off your lights you are achieving nothing just giving in to green guilt and actually diverting attention away from the real issue which is replacing our carbon producing sources with fission and later fusion.Environmentalists are on both sides of the fence trying to reduce carbon emissions while opposing fission power which generates on average 16% of earth electricity.
That figure includes the reams of countries which do not use fission power, in counters which do it can be anywhere between 6 – 80% If you’re going down the road of energy effeincy then you have to do something about the worlds increasing population. Even if you do manage to achieve a global 50% decrease in energy usage by 2050 we would be right back at square one.
That’s why energy conservation is a flawed approach to climate change, The only approach the one which the EU and US are adopting is replacing our carbon producing energy sources with Nuclear and to a much lesser extent the "renewables" .
The problem is green nonsense distracts from this, and spreads a myth that energy conservation is a viable solution to climate change. Which it is not. We don’t need the help of the general public if you want to help stop climate change however, Vote agnst the greens 16% of earths energy comes from a carbon free source . Lets make that a start .
Last edited by bob21 on 20 May 2009 - 21:49
Can you access the information from your mobile phone?!
Google is like a superhero for us always.
The only reason to monitor ones utility bill isn't for going green, but how much green you can save in your wallet each month. Though, there are times where I turn every light on in the house for 24hours straight just to show case to everyone I gladly burn up more coal to provide coal workers with more work!
Where do you think where the carbon in your breath comes from?
Hint: carbon cycle
You know... you exhale CO2, plants use it and produce oxygen, storing the carbon, animals eat it, you eat them, you exhale CO2 ...
IT IS A CLOSED LOOP!
Now compare this to pumping oil or gas from underground and burning it:
Oil/Gas/Coal -> CO2
SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
Is the information secure? (can anyone view your home's consumption and use it to figure out when you are not at home (burglar's dream come true))
How about the PowerLineCarries issues, most smart meters use PLC.
PLC can have unwanted side-effects on:
touch lamps,
automatic garage doors,
home security systems,
other automated systems in your home...
(handicap people's worst nightmare come true, real "gremlins" in your stairs elevator)
It will take years before the systems are fully operational and all the kinks are solved.
C-guy -- your approach I would not call green it's just being rational. I"m all for recycling and trying to conserve. It's saves money too! I associate "green" with the environmentalist whaco's out there who think a beatle or a rare type of dirt or a smiling cactus has more rights than humans. I too attempt to recycle -- believe me much harder in a rural area than if I lived in a large city that made it more simple -- I also conserve, only run AC when I really need to, dont' water the yard a whole lot, I car pool to work etc. I re-use anything I can before it gets thrown out or recycled. I use as many used parts and pieces for all of my projects before I buy new etc.
I have a meter capable of doing this they just replaced it. Yay no more reading the power meter every month. They can do it all from the CO now.
Modem -- Right on!!!
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