Ron Dembo

Ron Dembo

5/04/2010 @ 6:00AM

Making Every Plug Talk

Sometimes relatively simple inventions can have a profound impact on the world. Think of the light bulb, or bar codes. Every now and then there’s a key invention that unlocks the potential of an evolving area, as the Internet browser opened the door to the extraordinary world of the Web. We have seen how the connectivity that the Internet and mobile phones bring can unleash a tidal wave of creative development.

Today we are faced with profound challenges in terms of climate change and the need to dramatically reduce our energy consumption because of the carbon emissions that electricity produces. We need innovations that can fundamentally alter the way we control our use of energy–innovations that allow our modern world to continue to function while vastly improving energy efficiency and reducing waste.

Our world is filled with electrical and electronic equipment and appliances all operating in isolation, with no accountability for their energy consumption. We have TVs, computers, phone chargers, kettles, microwaves, washing machines, heating and air-conditioning, lamps and more. Most of these have to be physically switched on and off, and even when turned off, many continue to consume power in standby mode. A small proportion have timers that allow us to set their operating hours.

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Our appliances don’t communicate with us, with each other or with the utilities that supply them with the power they need to operate.

Our electrical grid was designed over a hundred years ago on a simple supply and demand model that assumes users will demand electricity and the grid will supply it. That was OK when we were 2 billion people on the planet, with only a relative handful having access to electrical power and just a few appliances in our houses.

But the demand for power is growing and will continue to grow. Not only do homes in the developed world have many more gadgets and devices than before, but in the developing world electricity means lighting, a water supply, heating, cooling, communications–all the things we associate with progress. Today, cellphones that rely on electricity are ubiquitous in even the poorest countries with almost no infrastructure.

We need more sophisticated controls than just the on/off switch. We have all the technologies to provide this–sensors, microprocessors, wireless communication devices, the Internet, optimization software, etc. But we cannot afford to wait for a new generation of appliances that incorporate these functions.

The good news is that we can exploit these technologies today by looking not at the appliance, but at where it interfaces with the energy supply–at the plug. If we could make every plug intelligent and able to talk, we could gain complete insight into our energy use. The plug is the gateway to our appliances–if we can control this, we can control and optimize the operation of our machines.

Picture a world where every plug and light switch is able to report via wireless and Internet connection exactly what appliance is attached to it, whether it is on or off, and how much energy it is using. At the same time, we are able to talk back to all the plugs and switches via the same connections, and monitor and control their operation.

Now imagine what could happen.

You would walk into your house or apartment and know exactly what energy was being consumed where. The talking plugs would be monitoring every appliance and piece of equipment, and reporting back on a display or your computer. In fact, you would probably want to take advantage of the talking plugs’ two-way communication and pre-program them to cut down your energy spending.

You could remotely instruct all appliances plugged in but not in use to be switched firmly off, so there would be no wasteful leakage of electricity into set top boxes or microwaves on standby, or into idle phone or iPod chargers. You could tell your water heater and air-conditioning not to come on unless you were there or were close. Same with the lights.

Just taking the simple step of turning appliances not in use off could save a significant amount of electricity. Experiments in North Carolina and elsewhere have showed that when people are made aware of the phantom load, or ghost consumption of energy in their homes, they take action that cuts their bills by 15% on average.

As well as immediate and continuous feedback on your energy consumption, talking plugs could provide summary information on the energy use of all of your appliances. At the moment, all we get is a bill once a month, or less, that simply aggregates all consumption into a single figure. Many people are now talking about the desirability of itemized energy bills, like itemized supermarket or phone bills, where we could see each month just how much electricity each of our appliances consumed. With talking plugs we could achieve this. At a glance we would know where our main energy use was, and we could identify high or wasteful consumption and take action to reduce it.


See Also:

Carbon Stickers For Buildings

The Case For Home Efficiency Retrofits

Boosting Batteries For Electric Cars

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