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Technical Editor Margery Conner's PowerSource streams the latest developments in electronic power design and related technologies. Follow Margery on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/margeryc.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Google’s philanthropic arm puts a power meter on your desktop

Jun 3 2009 11:52AM | Permalink |Comments (8) |

Google continues to work on its power meter project to enable you to monitor your personal power consumption from your desktop. Yesterday they released screenshots of what the power monitoring widgets that reside on your Google home page might look like:

Google PowerMeter widget - via earth2tech.com

“Google’s Tom Sly also told the listeners on a call held to discuss the tool — among them utilities, device makers and press — that because Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org is running the PowerMeter program, the company is not developing a business model for it. Google is not charging the utility, the customer or the third-party device maker for PowerMeter data access, said Sly, which he said puts the company in a unique position to focus on innovation.”

Last month, Google released a list of utilities it is partnering with to provide beta versions of the Google PowerMeter working with the partnering utilities metering equipment. Those partners include San Diego Gas & Electric, TXU Energy, Wisconsin Public Service, White River Valley Electric Cooperative, JEA, Glasgow EPB, Reliance Energy (India), and Toronto Hydro–Electric System (Canada). According to Google, what all these utilities have in common is that they are all in the process of installing residential smart meters, and they have “a desire to serve their customers by providing access to detailed information that helps save energy and money.””

Via earth2tech.

Related entries in: Power Sources/Controllers |

Reader Comments

at 6/4/2009 2:53:22 PM, Ben said:
Spooky.

at 6/16/2009 1:56:45 PM, millennium1000 said:
Bravo to Google and Good Luck.
Most all utilities will balk.
The total energy used is many times less than the amount of energy the utility measures and markets.
Historically and legally, no one except the utility is authorized to police, check, verify, measure, remeasure, calibrate, recalibrate or question the utility records. No local utility ever goes broke or makes marginal profits. Shortcomings and non-payments are redistributed to good, honest, rate paying customers. No one knows. No one questions. No one is authorized. No one is qualified. No one cares.

Utilities will have lots of long time explaining to do if accurate energy measurements are allowed. Go google go go go "utility police"

at 6/16/2009 2:11:28 PM, Seabird said:
Major creepola -- how exactly is this supposed to help anybody? Every increase in efficiency is overpowered by increase in demand. There's enough junk on my desktop & I spend quite enough time shackled to the PC right now; I need another excuse to micromanage my life?

Just wait for "evidence" from smart metering to be introduced as court evidence: "O.J. couldn't have killed her because his power meter says he was at home at the time..."

at 6/16/2009 2:38:52 PM, Jim Jarvis said:
It's an interesting concept. But do we need a desktop kwh meter to tell us that our refrigerator is inefficient? Or that CFL's will save power?

Moreover, there are power-factor issues surrounding the inexpensive ballast circuits in CFL's, which will render the actual readings incorrect.

Nonetheless, it MAY be a diagnostic for an unexpected power hog in the home.

But this is coming from someone who saved 30,000 kwh by relamping our church, and has reduced his annual home consumption by almost 6,000 kwh over the last 2 years.

As the saying goes, "you get what you measure."

at 6/16/2009 6:14:46 PM, Wketel 2 said:
I am a bit more interested in exactly HOW this is going to work, the actual physical layer, (PHY for the geeks). If it will interogate our blue-tooth enabled smart meter, probably others could read it also, and figure out when we were not home or asleep, and break in. If I really want to see what an item is drawing I will either use my personal ammeter, watthour meter, or else step outside and see what my power meter displays. No need to use thousands of dollars worth of infrastructure to see something I can see for free.

at 6/17/2009 1:13:06 AM, Fowler said:
@ Jim Jarvis you reduced your home consumption by 6MWh annually? Dude how big is your house

at 7/31/2009 3:33:57 PM, Mike in San Angelo, TX said:
GOOD LUCK GOOGLE. Electric power is one of the few items we: Buy without knowing how much bill will be; Buy without the seller being required to disclose the quantity being sold; Buy without a way of knowing if the "scales" have been rigged; and Buy without being able to clearly and simply regulate the quantity being purchased.

Disclosure: I worked for a number of years as a designer of distribution transformers that were built to specification for power utility companies. These are the same gray or blue cans seen mounted on telephone poles, or the same green boxes sitting on the ground or on concrete slabs near the electrical entrances of commercial buildings and some homes.

In regard to my prior claim regarding regulation of power consumption, there exist on many transformers a means to raise and lower the voltage delivered, called "tap settings". These taps are typically settings of "4 2-1/2% below" a nominal voltage, "2 2-1/2% above and below", or in the case of 14,400 volt units what are called J-taps. In proper use, they assure that the consumer is delivered outlet voltages near 115 volts and near 230 volts.

Improperly set, the consumer is delivered voltage that is too low or too high. This causes, depending on the appliance, an over consumption of power and damage to the appliance. If seem to be burning out light bulbs left and right, you may have high voltage. If you keep burning out fan motors and air conditioning pumps, you may have low voltage.

ENOUGH with the technical stuff and back to Power Cost Monitoring.

Last year I purchased, from Blue line Innovations, www.bluelineinnovations.com, a Power Cost Monitor. The device installs in less than 5 minutes and DOES NOT block the view of the meter.

In the 1st, yep, FIRST, month of use, I dropped my utility bill by about US$200, saving about half of the average bill for the same month the years before. (I used the average for the same months for the prior years to minimize the effects of weather.)

By knowing within about 5 to 10 seconds what my power usage and cost was I quickly determined what each electric device in my house cost per minute. Thus, I was able to plan and adjust my appliance usage.

For example, one of the bigger surprises was the cost of different dishwasher settings. Another surprise was the cost of the unintended consequences of operating an appliance.

Electricity consumption is only part of the picture, usage patterns and the heat load generated, or hot water demand may also be components of the Total Cost of Operation picture. So, for instance, when the PC and monitor heat causes the AC unit to come on the cost of using the PC really jumps up.

In the case of the dishwasher, heating the water multiple times, at the water heater and at the dishwasher, also raises the cost of running the dishwasher to over $1.00 per minute for some parts of the washing cycle, depending on the dishwasher settings.

Saving electricity is not just about how much power a given appliance uses, but it is that cost in addition to the pattern of usage of the appliance and what else the appliance causes to come on and consume electricity.

This has been a long note in reply to some posters doubting the benefits of knowing what your power costs. I know that in my case I have been able to save a great deal of money.

However, as nice as it is to know the cost of what I am buying at the time of purchase, the Power Company won out.

In two or three months after installing my Power Cost Monitor, I received a Certified Letter from the "Lines Company", AEP demanding that I remove the Power Cost Monitor from their meter.

They cited, with cause I suppose, that I should use a different method of monitoring power usage WITHOUT attaching ANYTHING to their meter.

Their concerns were:
A) Does it interfere with their meter? Why did my bill drop so much?
B) The company, AEP, could not be responsible for any damage to my Power Cost Monitor in the event they needed access to their meter.
C) The Public Utility Commission gave them the right to preclude anything that can be construed to interfere with the metering and billing of power.

Some of their suggestions were:
1) Purchase and install a second power meter in series with their power meter and install my Power Cost Monitor on it;
2) Purchase and install different type of power monitoring system, one that does not read directly from the utility meter; or
3) Purchase from the utility company a different type of power meter, one that has a data port provided, if or when one is available from AEP.

I would advocate that Power Delivery Companies, "Lines Companies" be MANDATED to provide a device similar to, or the same, Blue Line Innovations power COST monitoring devices that display: the instantaneous cost and amounts of power delivered and the total cost and power delivered with updates no less than the meter's update rate, or every few seconds, whichever is quicker.

In some cases this would be the rotational period of a typical eddy current driven power meter, the kind with the rotating wheel with the black stripe or mark on it. In other cases, it would be whatever the minimum power monitoring rate is. At any case, the intent would be to allow the consumer to determine, within a few seconds, what turning on or off an appliance does to the energy consumption rate.

BTW, I still save money on my utility bills because what I learned from using my prohibited and disallowed power cost meter still holds true and is in use each month. And, I didn't lose the money I spent since I earn it back each month. What did I do with the meter? I loan it out to friends and family and they use it until the power company tells them to take it off, or they learn to cut their bills in half.

P.S. The meter is a really great way to tell when an appliance such as your air conditioning unit needs to be serviced, was serviced properly, or if the new one they sold you is really saving you money.

at 9/17/2009 12:44:08 AM, Computers & Tech said:
Hey there,
Cool blog, I just came across it and I am already a fan.

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