One of the problems with energy consumption is that consumers often don't know exactly how much energy they are consuming at a given moment, or how much that consumption is costing. Typical consumers get a bill at the end of the month reporting total consumption and the total bill. But efficient energy pricing requires the consumer to know the marginal cost of the next unit consumed--how much will it cost me to toast this frozen waffle? It looks like someone has figured out a way to move us towards real time energy consumption and pricing information in the house:
A couple of years ago, Seth Frader-Thompson was driving a Prius. Priuses have little screens on the dashboard that tell you what gas mileage you're getting, in real time, as you drive. It crossed Frader-Thompson's mind that houses should have something similar. So he built the EnergyHub Dashboard, a little device, with a screen, that can talk wirelessly to your furnace and your various appliances and let you know exactly how much electricity (or gas) each one is using and how much it's costing you. It can also turn appliances on and off and raise or lower the temperature in your house so you can rein in the real power hogs. EnergyHub is currently partnering with utilities for trials and will be available direct to consumers in early 2010.
Cool. Now I'll have a way to charge my kids for leaving their bedroom lights on.
