Home Energy Use App by Google

Hey look - Google made a sweet an app to monitor home energy use, and it's coming soon to a neighborhood near you! The Google PowerMeter will give you real-time data about your home's energy use -- so you can finally "see" how much electricity you're using and when. And it has the sleek, colorful grandma-friendly interface of Google, horray! I'm really excited about this, and waiting anxiously for them to roll this out in New England -- they're currently testing it in the UK.

image from google.org/powermeter

I'm still not convinced that complete information is actually going to lower my home energy use, even though I'm excited about all of the colorful graphs. My Discover card, for example, has a great online "spend analyzer" that I check out all of the time - it's colorful and interactive, and it makes me more aware of what I purchase, but I'd be hard pressed to say that it helps me to curb spending.

For the PowerMeter app, it would be really valuable to have a !! goal setting tool !! built in (something my credit card obviously does not have). That way you can set a goal, say using 10% less energy this year than last, and the PowerMeter can send you reminders of when your energy use is off track. (Or a cookie when you're doing a good job?) The economist in me loves easy access to more complete information, but the lazy bum in me realizes that sometimes coaching is more important than knowledge when it comes to remembering to change my habits.


So, yes, Google is taking over my life (and probably yours). But they just make it so darn convenient...and good looking.