Energy-Aware Plug

November 29, 2007

Electricity is invisible and we tend to forget about it until the bill comes. Now researchers are developing an intelligent plug that will monitor and quantify energy consumption. The scientists think that if consumers can see the electricity that household appliances use and then also be able to adjust that use, it might make folks less apathetic about leaving the lights on.

The Power Watch Plug, being developed by John Woods and Steve Fitz at Essex University in the UK, will look like any ol' standard cord coming out of the back of an appliance. But this one will contain a power meter, a microcontroller and a wireless transceiver. The device will monitor the power it is supplying from the outlet to the machine and send the information to a central computer (laptop, desktop, PDA, or mobile phone). There, software will organize the data in ways useful to the consumer. A homeowner will be able to see, for example, what appliances are on and off, which ones are on standby, how much energy they're using, and even be able to remotely power down any equipment unnecessarily running up the meter.

Prototype plugs will be manufactured by Ipswich-based Circad, and should be ready within six months.Once completed, they would be made available to manufacturers, who would attach the plugs to appliances in the factory. 

Comments

[4life]

think about this for a minute. Every time you throw out an appliance you are tossing the wireless radio, sensor, electronics... why not put the sensors in the wall plug instead? (takes 5 mins to change a wall plug, and you don't need a permit...)

[Mysterymeat]

Niiiice. It's not to big a leap of the imagination to have a dashboard that aggregates the data from all your plugs ... and maybe via wifi or bluetooth, lets you schedule and control your electricity use from a central console.

[An Onymous Cowherd]

This looks really useful! I hope something like this eventually makes its way to the States!