OPOWER!

So, Xcel Energy was sending out fliers from OPOWER on a trial basis, trying to make peer pressure work to convince people to reduce their energy usage by comparing them to neighbors in similar homes.  OPOWER claims fantastic results from this, by simply making people aware of their usage and how it compares to others.

Sadly, it seems that this approach does not work for many conservatives.

Anyway, both my brother-in-law and my neighbor got the flier; I did not.  My brother in law went so far as to “feel really bad about it” and then put it in the circular file.  My neighbor filed his away for “later.”  Failures?  I dunno.

Anyway, the interesting thing is that there was a URL on the flier I saw, for the Xcel/OPOWER site at http://xcelenergy.opower.com and it turns out that you don’t have to be randomly selected to be able to sign up for online access.  It’s not exactly the same information as was on the flier, but it’s still interesting.  And, you can even get daily usage over a week, which is something I’ve been wishing they’d provide since forever…. Aside from that, it’s the usual pap about “seal up household leaks” and “buy a programmable thermostat.”

5 thoughts on “OPOWER!

  1. The daily’s are interesting enough to send me on a quest. When I’m gone for an extended vacation, and all but my fridge is disconnected/powered off, I’m at 2kwh per day.

    Apparently that’s the minimum that I can possibly use. One fridge, no lights, no computers, no laundry, etc.

    The rest of the year I’m jumping between 5 and 12 kwh per day. No idea why some days it’s 5, other days it’s 10-12kwh.

    But I’ll find out. ;-)

    • 2kW/day is a base load of about 83W … if that’s your fridge, you need a new fridge. :) 730 kWh/year is pretty darned high.

      If you have an electric dryer & stove, that can sure make the daily usage jump.

      My base load seems a bit higher, but that’s partly with one 50W (now 40W) computer on all the time, and 2 fridges (one efficient, one very very efficient, both small, hence the need for two :( )

  2. Pingback: Opower goes social | Eric's Blog

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