renovation planning: Saving energy, the Google way

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Saving energy, the Google way

If Google has its way, it will be reminding us to turn the lights off.
Thanks to a new Google-powered meter, our computers will monitor how much energy our household guzzles. Wow, just like opening an email, only scarier.
Smart meters are popping up all over Oz as energy companies realise that regular Joes like you and me are able to cut down our energy consumption more easily if we measure it. The idea is that when we see that meter clicking the $$$ over, we flick off the lights and sit in the dark with the smugness of knowing how much money we are saving.
Google's power-meter is still in testing, but the basic idea is that it hooks into smart meters to allow people to read their energy consumption from their desktop. Given that Google is taking over the world, it won't be long before our computers are nagging us more than our father's ever did to turn off the lights ... but can the computer yell, "this house is lit up like a bloody Christmas tree" while wearing a bad dressing gown and snapping off light switches?