Not every green home requires a bounty of solar panels or other systems to produce clean energy. Conserving energy is the cleanest energy of all. That’s what this 2,500-square-foot vacation home in northern Vermont accomplishes with some serious energy monitoring—while celebrating its habitat by bringing nature indoors. Green construction materials and the addition of...
When control and automation company Savant Systems introduced its SST-W1000 wireless thermostat recently, it marked a first for the company. Now it has its own thermostat, as well as supporting others. But other than that, no big deal, right? Another Wi-Fi-connected thermostat, ho hum. But as Savant’s executive vice president of Corporate Strategy &...
One of the more interesting commercial-grade energy monitoring and management software solutions I’ve seen lately comes from an Australia-based company called Switch Automation, now creating a presence in the United States with offices in San Diego and San Francisco. Switch says it is more of a building automation software company that works with energy,...
In our inaugural podcast, we discuss the key articles for this week and next. Steve and Mike talk about the latest energy monitor myth, the greenest home in America, marketing for green tech, and the upcoming GTA survey.
Music courtesy Genius of the Heard.
In upcoming podcasts we’ll feature interviews and answers to reader questions. Have a comment or question for Steve and Mike? Comment on the post — we’ll answer the best questions in an future podcast. Is there someone in the Green Tech area you’d love to hear interviewed? Let us know and we’ll hunt them down just for you!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Here’s something all electric utilities should think of doing when rolling out their smart grid programs: Hydro Ottawa has re-launched its peaksaver program with a new peaksaver PLUS program that offers customers a free professionally-installed programmable thermostat plus an in-home energy display to help them monitor and manage their electricity use. The Energy Display...
How do you sell “Net Zero” homes that produce all their own energy? One homebuilder, Nexus EnergyHomes in Stevensville, Md., is giving away iPads to the new owners of their homes. The builder has sold seven homes in its North Pointe development in Frederick, Md. The iPads—just iPad 2s for now—aren’t gimmicky enticements. They’re...
Powerhouse Dynamics has released a new wireless version of its eMonitor energy monitoring system. The new eMonitor4 delivers Wi-Fi signals from the system’s gateway to a home’s router, as well as 2.4GHz wireless communications from a base unit installed inside the electrical panel to the gateway, avoiding the need to run wires outside the...
Weird year: 2011 was supposed to be the breakthrough year for home energy management, at least according to this GreenTech Advocates guy. That didn’t quite happen, but there was a lot of progress. Just not exactly the kind we anticipated. There was bad news, too. Google and Microsoft left the energy monitoring party, and...
How can people be convinced to engage in energy efficiency projects for their homes? One of the conclusions of the Shelton Group’s recent Energy Pulse 2011 survey is that in order to inspire people to be more energy-efficient, the problem with not being efficient needs to be more visible. This is difficult, as energy...
Blue Line Innovations and Eragy, two of the more interesting companies in home energy monitoring, are partnering to provide easy energy monitoring for do-it-yourselfers, owners of Control4 home control systems, and even utilities rolling out energy-saving and smart grid programs. The partnership combines Blue Line’s low-cost PowerCost Monitor energy sensing hardware with Eragy’s suite...
Electronic House Green Tech Blog