Testing Google's Powermeter software

Just a quick post this morning as our January print deadline consumes me. I've mentioned Google's Powermeter home energy monitoring software on the blog before. Now Adam Vaughan gives it a test for the Guardian. He writes:

It's not been an entirely pleasant experience. While I had it setup in 10 minutes – using a small hub and sensor from British company AlertMe to plug into my web connection – seeing my electricity use on an iGoogle page alongside my email, news, RSS and other widgets was sometimes a scary reminder of our profligacy.

Our house typically rests at around 150 watts running a computer, fridge and a couple of lights, but it's not uncommon for that to jump up to more like 3kW (3,000 watts) with the washing machine and dishwasher running simultaneously. In December as a whole, the Powermeter graph reminded my daily, we used a shockingly high 370 kWh – but fortunately December's also probably our highest month for energy use, because it's one of the darkest and the one where we're most frequently at home.

Ultimately, the really interesting stuff for this technology will come when all this data gets shared socially – and results in the sharing of advice and the application of peer pressure to make people change their habits.