Saturday, February 24, 2007
Canadian Entrepreneurs Attempt to Cut Power Use
I just read an article in Fortune Small Business that got me pumped. A couple of Canadians have developed a product called the PowerCost Monitor. It is a device that attaches to a homeowner's electric meter and reads the amount of electricity consumed and converts it to dollars and cents. Hydro One, an Ontario utility, bought 30,000 units to distribute to customers. They found that customers who used the gadget used an average of 6.5% less electricity. The brothers who came up with the idea for the device said that, as kids, their father prodded his children to turn off lights and turn down the heat and said people would waste less if they only had a way to easily translate how electricity usage translated in real money. I'm going to ask my electric utility about encouraging customers to use this device and, perhaps, to subsidize their usage.
3 comments:
We're Hydro One customers, so I'll have to check into the device. Soon, we're supposed to be getting meters that keep track of when you use power. You'll pay less for power consumed during off peak hours. As for power, I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately. This summer, we may set up a small, experimental wind generator just for the heck of it.
Bev, tell me your experiences with power usage. It will be interesting to learn whether Hydro One supplies you with the device. I just love the idea of being given the opportunity of knowing how much power I'm using...and of controlling how much I use and, if properly monitoried, controlling my use in a way that allows me to control my expenses for power.
Yes, will do. This must be something new as we usually hear about these kinds of things on a flyer in with the hydro bill. I can't say I've seen anything like it... just the information on the new meters that track power usage at different times of the day.
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