Hohm: Microsoft Gets Into the Energy Business
A few days ago, a group of enterprising bloggers discovered that Microsoft had just trademarked the name 'Hohm.' Today, we can finally reveal what Hohm is really about. At its core, Hohm is Microsoft's answer to Google's PowerMeter and similar services. Hohm is dedicated to giving consumer's information about potential energy savings, while at the same time connecting those consumers whose energy providers already use smart meter technology with real-time information about their own energy consumption at home.
It's also noteworthy that Hohm was developed on top of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform.
Like most similar projects, Microsoft's Hohm will hook into the data streams from utilities once they bring their smart grids online Correction: Hohm can bring in data even from utilities that don't support smart meters yet, as long as the utility provider provides a data stream of some form to Microsoft, even if it is not real-time. For now, Microsoft is only rolling out support for 4 utilities (Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy), but it's only a matter of time before more utilities will roll out similar projects and smart meters, and as Microsoft's Troy Batterberry, the product unit manager for Hohm, told us in an interview last week, Microsoft plans to make a long-term investment here and support data streams from utilities that offers them. Batterberry also mentioned that Microsoft plans to announce a number of additional partners in the next few months.
Models, Predictions, Education
Besides bringing in real-time information from smart meters, though, Hohm also provides users with interesting data about their own energy consumption even when their utilities are not online yet. All a user has to do is answer some basic questions and Hohm will provide an estimate of a household's energy consumption. For a full assessment, Hohm can ask over 200 questions and the more answers a user provides, the better the estimate will be. In the back-end, Microsoft is constantly tweaking these models based on the real-life data it receives from users whose utilities already allow data to be downloaded to Hohm. Microsoft's Troy Batterberry also told us that these models are already quite reliable, but will only get better as more users enter their data and as Microsoft gets to compare its models with more real-time data from its partners.
Batterberry also stressed that Microsoft wants to make Hohm useful for users right now, not just those whose utilities use smart meters. To educate these users, Hohm also features a large section with resources and tips for saving energy.
Good Now - But Will Get Better Once Real-Time Data is Available for More Users
A simple model, of course, wouldn't be very interesting if users can't experiment with different settings like switching out their standard light bulbs for energy-saving ones, for example. Hohm does a nice job here, but in the end, the real advantage of using Hohm or similar systems will only be unlocked once users can get real-time (or almost real-time) access to their energy data. Once that happens, the "Prius-effect" can then set in, where users change their behavior based on the real-time feedback about their car's (or, in this case, their house's) real-time energy consumption.
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Work is often thought as the definition of what makes a person. Your work is thought to be what you ultimately are – but how silly is that? (What if you service septic tanks for a living?) The author, philosopher, historian, and mathematician Bertrand Russell once wrote an essay called In Praise of Idleness, and we often forget the simple pleasure of writing a poem or doing crosswords in the paper, or reading someone's memoirs, if it's interesting enough. (The recollections of a business software engineer wouldn't count – boring!) In modern life, we too often are caught up in work or whether or not to get an online payday loan, and forget to take time to do nothing.
quiet 'cool' initiative. But seems its in private beta and not open to all.
It is of limited use until one puts in their energy info. The stock savings recommendations can be found on any utility or .gov site.
The author may also want to look into GridPoint and Apogee Interactive for their take on providing similar information to customers.
This is great news. We have first-hand knowledge that real-time monitoring and presentation of that data in a visually useful way is a great motivator. We have reduced our energy consumption by 16% since projecting our usage on the Web: http://www.energycircle.com/ted_display.php Hohm and Google PowerMeter have the ability to bring that measuring capacity to more people, and make it as easy as possible. Efficiency is an important and relatively easy first step to take. I know exactly how much I've saved by using a clothesline instead of the dryer. Turns out I needed to know before the effort seemed worth it. It's my hope that this is the beginning of a real cultural shift toward efficiency.
We are helping find participants for an on-line survey of home energy monitors. There is a list of qualifying devices, you need to be using one of them.
The study ends August 30 2009, is offering a $10.00 Starbucks card for completed surveys. We vouch for the fact that there is no "trickery" with this request.
http://www.open4energy.com/forum/home/dev/home_energy_monitoring_device_survey_0907291255
Microsoft see that energy business grows fast in last time and would like to earn on this.
Yeah, microsoft needs to follow other companies as this issue is really becoming like a hype. If you dont give any beneifits on the cost of green energy.. it could be bad them in longterm. Windows Exhaust Fan
Oh, very interesting news. Microsoft is a great company and developing really useful products to be more competitive organization. We'll see how Hohm will work.
The lists of monitors, devices and home control systems has mushroomed since Hohm was first announced.
But what does not seem to have changed much is most peoples attitude to electricity.
Next time you are in a crowd, do a random ask of how many Kilowatt hours the person used last month. You get no prozes for guessing that most will not have a clue.
In fact many will not even know what last months bill amounted to.
Here are the three complete directories of available technologies, now all we need is people to start using them.
Do note the open source project at the top of the following list of monitors and displays. It is cool ...
http://open4energy.com/technology/list_home_energy_monitor
Wireless energy devices that can actuate a switch are springing up every day.
http://open4energy.com/technology/home_energy_saving_devices
And last, and anything but least, this is who the utilities are mostly working with.
http://open4energy.com/technology/list_home_energy_control_systems
Do check out EcoFactor, and the other smart thermostats, they save electricity - unlike the power factor scams that are all over us.
http://open4energy.com/forum/home/scam/energy_saving_scams
If you are unsure, search "open4energy energy scams" and this will give you the latest unbiased and safe information.