Earth2Tech reports (Google Jumps Into Organizing Smart Meter Energy Data) that Google is developing an online application, “PowerMeter,” to help people to manage their home energy consumption. Currently being tested with Google employees, the web-based software will eventually be rolled out to consumers - or at least to consumers whose houses are equipped with a smart electricity meter - and it will apparently be free.
This news is not likely to thrill other software developers who have been working to develop their own applications, but it is a useful reminder that we are fast approaching an era in which the performance of the buildings we occupy will be something that we can constantly monitor and manage online (see Earth2Tech follow-up - 11 February 2008 update). For a long time, much of the technological input to designing and constructing a building was focused just on these delivery phases, with little thought as to whole life costs. Initiatives such as Google's echo the efforts of firms like Pachube to create a more pervasive ICT infrastructure that allows us to operate and maintain our buildings, and the appliances inside them, more efficiently.
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