The Smart Home and In Home Displays

This past week a group of CNT Energy staff took a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry on Chicago’s South Side to look at the Smart Home exhibit. In this highly energy efficient model house designed to spur the imagination about what the future of homes in the 21st century could be, we noticed that there were building monitoring display systems in almost every room. We are constantly keeping an eye on the emerging products in this sphere since they have the potential to be a breakthrough for helping people become more energy efficient.

Some Power Smart Pricing Participants have been members of our PriceLight in home display test program. The PriceLight brings information about the current price of electricity into the home. The next generation of in home displays brings in more information such as real-time electricity consumption information and the ability to control appliances. Studies have observed proven results showing that people with these devices in their homes have decreased energy consumption simply because they have a better grasp of their daily electricity usage. A recent article in The Christian Science Monitor provides some good examples of this trend in action. It goes on to mention the added influence of more advanced electric meters combined with real-time pricing.

Power Smart Pricing is a growing program that has reached national acclaim because of the shift in energy usage participants are making away from high priced hours. Your efforts have shown the energy efficiency industry that real-time pricing combined with emerging smart grid technology is an important part of the solution for lowering energy costs, improving reliability and cutting emissions.

Christian Science Monitor – December 18, 2008 edition
Power meters help homeowners track and cut their energy use