Google power meter analyzes home energy consumption

11.02.2009
Google is trying to impact electrical energy consumption by that will let users track electricity usage in a very detailed way.

Google's PowerMeter software will tell consumers exactly how they are using energy -- down to the appliances themselves. For instance, they will be able to find out that running their clothes dryers at 7 a.m. everyday is one of their greatest costs.

Right now, the software is being tested by Google employees.

"In a world where everyone had a detailed understanding of their home energy use, we could find all sorts of ways to save energy and lower electricity bills," Google engineer Ed Lu wrote on the . "If half of America's households cut their energy demand by 10 percent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road."

reports that Google has no intention of building the product alone. Instead, they are looking for help from the industry.

"We can't build this product all by ourselves," Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a program manager at Google.org, the company's corporate philanthropy arm, told The Times. "We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions."