Michaeljon Miller : Hohm

IEEE Spectrum article on Green Energy

mikemill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:49:53 GMT

In November, IEEE Spectrum ran an article titled Biofuels Aren’t Really Green. The short version is that pushing an all-biofuel solution to our current energy problems is intractable. There’s simple not enough water or space on Earth to grow all the biomass necessary. Before you jump to the conclusion that this is just another “sky is falling” attempt to scare everyone, read the article and try the model yourself. The model allows you to decide how prosperous various parts of the globe will be, over what timeframe, and to what level.

We really only have a few choices here and they start with energy management and conservation. We must reduce our consumption while helping other countries come par with our lifestyle. It’s only fair, and it’s only a start.

Holiday Lights Low Concern For Northwest Power Producers

mikemill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:39:37 GMT

This morning, KPLU aired a piece on the power consumption of holiday lights. The BPA says that holiday lights count for less than 1/2 of 1% of energy consumed by BPA customers. That’s really not that much. But, we can do better. According to the folks over at ENERGY STAR, compliant lights use 75% less energy than traditional lights (and, my personal opinion – they’re easier to install because you can string many, many more in serial).

Granted, there are also several other great benefits too: the run cooler, they last longer, you can shake them up a bit more while installing them, and they might even be a bit brighter.

We installed LEDs this year for the first time (I wanted to make sure the old ones had sufficiently worn out before I dealt with the disposal issues). I won’t go back. Now, it’s time to work out a Hohm plug-in for the energy modeler that can calculate my savings.

Seattle City Light is connected to Hohm

mikemill — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:11:51 GMT

I completely forgot to tell anyone. Seattle City Light has passed all of their Hohm integration certification tests and they’ve gone live. You can read the SCL press release here. Congratulations to SCL for being the first and for a job well done.

Hohm’s beta audience is US single-family households

mikemill — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:05:00 GMT

For now yes, Hohm is targeted at US single-family households. Sure, it’s possible to use it for multi-family homes, but some of the assumptions start to break down. Over time we’ll extend the models to support other countries. In the meantime, if you want to try out the site, the US models generally apply if you pick a zip code that climatically matches your own (and has comparable energy prices).

There is a known issue with browser language settings that we’re actively addressing as I write this and we expect to roll out a hotfix soon. To get around this problem you can simply switch your browser to use en-US as the default locale. And no, we don’t really think your annual energy costs are in the US $1b range. That’s a bug. It’s a beta.

If I might ask a favor as well – if you use the site, please send us your feedback via the feedback links. We’re still in beta and we’re listening to everything our customers are saying. Thanks.

[Edit 8 Jul 9:45am] We released a hotfix yesterday which should address the browser language setting. It was a mistake on our part and it was fixed. The huge energy cost problem, as one might imagine, was related to the language fix and shouldn't appear from now on.

[Edit 8 Jul 11:10am] Ok, so we didn't roll out the hotfix yesterday. We decided at the last minute to take one additional fix. I'll update when the us-EN assumption is fixed. Sorry.