Google launches PowerMeter in UK

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 Oct 2009 at 09:38

Google has launched its PowerMeter software in the UK in a bid to help homeowners cut their utility bills.

The Google software provides "near real-time" data on electricity consumption in the home, helping users to keep tabs on power-hungry appliances. The data is delivered via an iGoogle widget, which can be accessed from PCs or mobile phones.

Although the Google software itself is free, users will need to splash out on an energy-monitoring device or change their electricity supplier to take advantage of the PowerMeter.

The £69 Alert Me device clips on to the electricity meter, and sends data on power consumption to a wireless hub that can be accessed via your home network. Users also have to pay an additional £3 per month subscription, which will certainly eat into any cost savings accrued by reducing energy consumption.

Alternatively, users can sign up with first:utility, an electricity supplier which is fitting compatible smart meters in homes. Once again, there's a snag: Google's software will only be available to customers on the company's Smart Tariff, which is restricted to homes in the Midlands and East Midlands. Not so much saving the world, as saving Birmingham.

Google's software should eventually find a wider audience. The Government has announced that every home in the country should have smart meters by 2020.