Home made Power - the future of home energy?

"What one pays attention to one can learn from and master."

Such is the secret of many successful people and organizations from Thomas Edison to Weight Watchers.

In a recent article about Lessons from the Honda Insight , the idea of a "green" electric meter that gave users more information about their electrical usage was discussed. If people could see how much electricity they were actually using when they turned on the Jacuzzi or what they could save when they cranked down the thermostat on the water heater, they might be better able to recognize and control their power usage. A recent contest to design such a meter — the interactive "Veridian Electric Meter" — was recently sponsored by the Sustainability Institute. Here is the winner.

According to Wired magazine (Jan 2001, p. 169), this table top bug communicates wirelessly with the main panel box and flashes a green LED in its tail when power usage is low. As usage goes up his tail turns first yellow, then red and the happy face turns into a frown. He also starts to grumble. Such a device would be great for teaching young kids.

For adults and the electrical utilities who will most likely buy and install such devices, something a bit more conservative is probably in order. How about a simple wall mounted touch screen device with three colored LEDs?

The green light would be on when power usage was low and might blink when power was being generated and supplied back to the grid. Yellow would be for normal usage and red for excessive or expensive power usage. Touching the panel would bring the screen to life and give the users more information.

Up would come two analog dials showing electrical usage over different time periods,  each would be expressed in the same units (perhaps kWhrs per day or dollars per day). The first would be a current reading of usage. Below the dial would be the current electrical rate being paid (flashing red for high demand rates and green when power was being sold to the grid). Next would be the usage for the month with a second needle for usage of the same month last year.

This is what a current design for a residential fuel cell power system looks like. About the footprint of a small refrigerator (but shorter) it would sit outside. It's only exhaust is clear water (drinkable water!). It is also almost silent and has no moving parts (ie: low maintainance.)

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