How The Internet Could Lower Energy Costs

A West Coast pilot program is giving brains to household appliances by enabling them to connect to the Internet and gather information about real time energy costs and make decisions about the best times to kick on or power down. Currently, 200 people are participating in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory pilot called the Information Week: 50 dryers are equipped with a chip that will respond to instability on the power grid and shut off the heating units on the dryers for a few minutes. Spread across millions of homes, this program could provide a shock absorber in the grid, giving producers the few minutes needed at times of peak demand to bring new power online. Whirlpool and IBM contributed and modified the dryers and water heaters for the testing period of the initiative. If successful, consumers could also monitor their monthly utility budget in real time to see if they are staying within their allowance. According to here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") Yahoo My Web