Although old-fashioned smoke detectors have functioned as a wine warning system for decades, they can be somewhat annoying with the potential for false alarms and low-battery chirping. The addition of smart smoke alarms to your home can add to your safety and peace of mind (by sending you a remote notification if something goes wrong). It all comes gown, however, to choosing the right device for your home and your needs.

Device Categories

The similarities between…

The Green Premium: A Meta-Analysis

A new…

One of the biggest praises that you see given to Millennials is that they are leading the charge in the green energy movement, that they are concerned with the environment and the state of the planet, and that they are determined to instigate changes that better the rest of the world. The other…

Well-Built Dumb Home

• One of the smartest things ever said about building a new home, was about something dumb:…

Smart Vent Scam: How can we stop this?

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/01/heating-vents-that-direct-warmth-where-you-want-it/index.htm

Look at this link. we all know that few systems can tolerate any more resistance created by smart vents or even partial closing of registers. LBL's paper on closing off vents to save energy, roundly…

Will new technologies democratize energy much the way the Internet did information?

Industry movement seems to point in that direction with the rise of the smart grid, time-of-day pricing, distributed solar, and the electric vehicle. Together these technologies offer a vision of a less centralized energy system, one where communities and households ‘vote in’ or shape the electric grid by how they decide to consume energy, a phenomenon also called the …

When I think about real time power usage data, I am thinking about data that is being made available that very second. Data that is being reported in real time is like watching a football game live. You know that the running back just added 10 yards on to his total because you just saw the run on the T.V. That's real time.

It is being reported that the Green Button program being offered by many power companies allows customers with a Smart Meter to see their power usage in real time,…

iPhone to Home: It's All About Communication and Home Automation.

by Don Ames,  www.detectenergy.com

Right now, it's more of a joke than a reality. For some reason, even with an iPhone or Tablet in our hands, we fail to realize the fact that someday, in the near future, we will all be living in a Smart Home. Yes, for a while, it will probably be like coming to terms with our first…