Have you heard about the Green Button initiative? It’s a way to get your energy usage information from your electric utility. President Obama mentioned it in his State of the Union address, and you’re probably going to start hearing a lot more about it. Electric utilities are beginning to support it—and app developers are...
Many companies are vying for the smart grid HAN (home are networking) market, producing energy management and monitoring systems that they hope utilities will deploy to enhance energy-saving smart grid services. There are all forms of energy dashboards available for this job, but one company may have the answer to inspiring utility customers to...
We can learn some lessons in selling energy efficiency from thermostats. Yes, the boring, old and hopelessly utilitarian thermostat—until now, that is. Today’s thermostats can feature colorful LCD touchscreens, video, and all sorts of features and functions that, simply put, make it easier to sell people on energy efficiency and make it easier for...
A new report from Pike Research says the market for commercial building automation systems will double over the next decade, increasing from $72.5 billion in 2011 to $146.4 billion by 2021. Pike Research’s report, Commercial Building Automation Systems, analyzes the global market for commercial building automation and management systems including security and access, HVAC...
The U.S. Department of Energy has recently released a pair of reports that sheds light in the market for LED (light emitting diode) lighting. It’s a market that shows great promise, one that consumers in residential and commercial markets are taking notice of—and one whose market longevity may be limited. The DOE’s US Lighting...
Some recent studies show the promise that building energy management systems and energy efficient buildings are set to take off—at least in the commercial sector. However, that promise is tempered other factors. A report by Pike Research states that global revenues from building energy management systems (BEMS) are expected to rise almost 14 percent...
The energy management announcements have come in fast and furious this week, with trade shows such as DistribuTECH going on. Here are a few key announcements, including an energy managing digital picture frame (neat idea), a new ecobee thermostat, EnTouch energy management for small businesses, Crestron energy management automation for commercial facilities, HAI ZigBee...
The smart and connected home was a popular theme at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. And that should be a very good thing for energy management, because companies from Panasonic to Samsung to LG and more were showing at least conceptual energy management systems. Though that doesn’t mean it will just happen. “Consumers don’t...
Here come “smart” appliances—again. Only this time more are bound to make it to market—we think. At the recent CES in Las Vegas, Samsung and LG both showed appliances that can connect to a smart grid, in which utilities will send pricing information that could change by the hour so you can automatically run...
The “smart” and “connected” home is becoming more and more of a reality, as evidenced by the surge in energy management systems shown at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Already available are several working and affordable energy management systems that utilize Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and ZigBee wireless technologies such Schlage’s Nexia Home...
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