Rachel’s Blogs

Today’s Eco ventures looked at SMART grids – which go along side the concept, I suppose, of intelligent homes.

By monitoring household energy usage – a smart grid lets you know how much energy you use – so you can monitor and avoid wasteful consumption.

Over in the US my interviewee told me that on average you can shave around 20% off your electricity bill.. which just goes to show how much unnecessary energy we waste now.

In fact Dr RAHMAN from IEEE Power and Energy Society also cited an example of some consumers in the America with electric vehicles – some are using their car to run their homes during the day – and then – charging their car battery at night when energy prices are cheapest.

I think when implementing something like energy consumption monitoring, with similar changes it will probably depend on regulation to give most consumers a push in the right direction.

Just look at the hybrid car industry.

With policy intervention or government initiatives for companies to make the switch – monitoring what you use and when you use it becomes a bigger issue and a must. As opposed to simply taking the energy that’s pumped out of our sockets for granted.

Another advantage of using smart grids is that they also bring in energy from a number of sources – benefits can be seen most greatly from sustainable energies such as wind and solar.

One of the reasons for this is when you think about using solar or wind energy – they tend to be intermittent – the sun does not shine all the time and the wind is not always blowing. However, from my understanding the smart grid is able to alter the source and leverage on energy saved that is yet to be consumed.

An article recently highlighted that smart grids could also help the US increase its power capacity by 13%!

I came across the fun gadget above the other day.

A solar reading light.

I thought I would share it with you it was around the same price as a regular light – and no additional electricity cost

Though I have to say – the bulb really wasn’t as bright.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS