Real-time electricity metering in Perth homes
Sunday evening’s TV news featured a story that 500 homes in Perth would participate in a trial to receive real-time energy meters in their homes. These energy meters allow residents to see how much electricity is being used across the whole house at any instant in time.
This is a great initiative, and I advocate this type of technology for a number of reasons.
One of the main problems with trying to reduce electricity use is that it is difficult to see exactly when and where electricity is being used. Most people know that devices can use significant amounts of electricity, even when in stand-by mode, but the question is, how are you supposed to know how much each of your devices use?
This kind of meter gives you the ability to turn on and off devices around the home and determine the effect on total electricity consumption in real-time. This then gives you the ability to make an informed decision about how and when you use your devices.
However, there is a much more important benefit. The simple act of providing direct feedback to users of their energy use can achieve a reduction in that energy use by a significant amount. The news story claims up to 25% reduction. A report titled The Effectiveness Of Feedback On Energy Consumption published by University of Oxford, Environmental Change Institute (2006) states up to 15%. Regardless of the exact figure, behaviour change can be triggered just by providing better information.
How can this cross over into the business world?
Many companies are planning to implement energy efficiency programmes as part of EEO, in preparation for the CPRS, or simply to save money in these difficult economic times. Changing people’s behaviour is one of the most powerful ways to implement energy efficiency.
If your business is interested in innovative use of real-time electricity monitoring, or other strategies for energy efficiency in the corporate world, please contact us here at Greensense.
