NowWatt - Share Your Energy Usage Data

As we are becoming more aware of the impact our use of energy has on our climate there is a greater need for people to reduce their energy consumption. Part of the solution is legislation through government but there is a suprising amount individuals and businesses can do to take responsibility for their own energy use and try to reduce the energy they use.

Home energy meters which give an instantaneous reading of the current are becoming more and more popular and can be the first step in making individuals aware of the energy they are using and how it changes depending on their way they use the equipment in their homes. This is a very good thing and to an extent allows householders to "be green through trial and error" by turning on and off appliances to see how much the energy use changes.

Despite this, the current range of meters don't necessarily encourage a decrease in the amount of energy a household uses as much as they could. There are three areas in particular which could be improved:

• No easy display of history information
• No one is looking
• People aren't always at home

The NowWatt Solution

The NowWatt project uses a small, cheap piece of electronics which can connect to Current Cost energy meters and broadcast information to the current cost website over a network, keeping track of historical usage and providing a clear display of energy trends as well as real-time readings.

This allows everyone in a building to easily access the energy data and also for people to share their energy use to encourage each other to continue reducing energy use.

If you have more than one current cost you can link up the data from each to give an overall picture of your energy use as you move from building to building throughout the day.

NowWatt is an ongoing project being developed with Chris Adams. If you are interested in becoming involved yourself or have a need for similar technology, please get in touch.

Technologies Used

• Debian 5.0 Linux
• Bifferboard embedded 486 system
• Python programming language
• SQLite database
• Redis databaase