Intel Sees ‘Green’ in Home Energy Market

As part of its efforts to take a big bite out of the smart grid pie, Intel has unveiled a reference design for a home energy management device at the West Coast Green Conference.

Intel’s Atom processor-based home energy management proof-of-concept reference design would act as a hub for controlling networked appliances and thermostats and to gather information from smart meters, reports CNET.

Intel is one of many companies developing products aimed at helping consumers understand their energy use and reducing their energy use. Others include Microsoft, Google and Apple, all of which have made moves into the smart-home energy management sector.

The energy management system can do a number of tasks ranging from tallying the amount of electricity that the networked appliances use, enabling consumers to program their thermostats via a touch screen to working with utilities’ demand-response programs to lower electricity use of appliances during peak times, reports CNET.

The reference design can also access the Internet and display video from security cameras.

The Intel Home Dashboard also allows users to compare their personal home energy use against their neighbors’ energy use, and measure energy levels generated by solar panels attached to the home, reports CRN.

It also features an automated “goodbye” function that switches the entire house to user-configured off mode when no one is home to eliminate “vampire” energy consumption from devices in standby mode, said CRN.

CRN says the overall concept of providing a hub for consumers to have control over the distribution of energy-based resources is gaining ground in the semiconductor industry. About 49 chip companies, including Intel, have urged President Obama, in a letter, to make energy consumption information available to every U.S. consumer.

Check out the Intel video here.