For some work that I am currently doing, I have found the wattbox as an interesting approach to managing power by taking the decision making power out of the hands of the energy users in cases where they generally don't make good decisions or don't pay enough attention to use energy efficiently. I personally think that the future of energy efficiciency comes in working around people instead of having people involved in monitoring their own energy use. This way, even if the person could care less, some energy gains are being made because the systems are doing all the "heavy lifting".
http://www.wattbox.c...ttbox/Home.html
What are your thoughts on how far this approach could be taken?
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Adaptive Energy Control
Started by jasserEnv, Jan 28 2012 08:22 PM
5 replies to this topic
#2
Posted 01 February 2012 - 04:27 PM
Well, I can't say I totally agree with this and it is for one reason only.
People do not appreciate being taken out of the loop and everyone is already in on this in most cases so being taken out of the loop completely will most likely make people mad and just cause problems.
If people are not involved then no one will want to help conserve and save in other places where controls can not be used.
People do not appreciate being taken out of the loop and everyone is already in on this in most cases so being taken out of the loop completely will most likely make people mad and just cause problems.
If people are not involved then no one will want to help conserve and save in other places where controls can not be used.
#3
Posted 02 February 2012 - 12:42 AM
Hmm... they say that it's been found that 30% of people are confused by their heating control systems? Having worked for an electrical contractor and seen some of the high-end heating controls I can understand that, but it seems to me a majority of people have very simple thermostat controls on their heating sytems that are easy to do manually what their technology does automatically. I can see though where it would be useful if you left home to go to work and forgot to turn the temperature down. I didn't notice if you could set it to warm up the house when you start on your way home so it's warm when you get there like some smart-house technology does, and if it's monitoring by electricty use I hope you can set it so the house doesn't get too cold in winter if you have pets at home when you're not there. It's an interesting concept, but I'm not sold yet.
#4
Posted 02 February 2012 - 09:46 PM
I wonder if the hesitance both of you have is because most of us with an environmental bent are already taking steps to try to curb our energy use? Is this a product that would be caught between those who care enough to do things on their own and those who don't care enough to consider the use of such products in the first place? Some technologies end up not fitting and your comments make me question if this one does.
#5
Posted 02 February 2012 - 11:17 PM
jasserEnv, on 02 February 2012 - 09:46 PM, said:
I wonder if the hesitance both of you have is because most of us with an environmental bent are already taking steps to try to curb our energy use? Is this a product that would be caught between those who care enough to do things on their own and those who don't care enough to consider the use of such products in the first place? Some technologies end up not fitting and your comments make me question if this one does.
I think you hit it. I personally wouldn't really be interested because it does what I'm doing anyway. And, I don't think people who don't think they need to think about their energy usage would care. I do think that if they marketed this as a variety of smart technology it might go over well. Those 2 words together tend to be popular. The electrical company I used to work for got a lot of inquiries about smart technology for homes.
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