Smart Homes/Smart Buildings

AlertMe Raises £8M for Home Energy Management

The Cambridge, U.K.-based startup is seeking to bring its energy management devices into homes as an add-on to its home security systems – a strategy shared by others in the field.

Lu’s Google PowerMeter Update: Open APIs, More Partners Soon

The head of Google's engineering team working on the PowerMeter home energy management project gave updates on its progress, including the thought that getting appliance-by-appliance energy use data wasn't that critical a concern.

Tendril Lands $30M as Growth, Consolidation Loom in Smart Grid

The smart grid industry is booming, but it will also likely experience a wave of consolidation over the next 18 months, says Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck.

Google Names Itron, Utilities as PowerMeter Partners

The search giant is testing its energy-monitoring platform with eight utilities and smart meter maker Itron, with the goal of bringing it to a broad range of customers by year's end.

U-SNAP: Modular Home Energy Communications

Radio Thermostat Co. of America has a new smart thermostat that can be outfitted with so-called "U-SNAP" modules to let it communicate via ZigBee, WiFi, Z-Wave, or other protocols to come.

Top Ten Smart Grid

What companies are leading the charge toward a smart grid of the future? And, who are the utilities that are taking the lead in giving them a market? We've broken down the smart grid sector into a number of broad components areas -- smart meter manufacturing, neighborhood-area meter networking and communication, in-home energy management, demand response, meter data management, other smart grid software and services, and the broader role of integrating these areas.

Google Invests in Silver Spring; Expect More

The search giant, which has been investing in startups through its philanthropy arm, has created a standard fund that will spend $100 million in 12 months.

Verizon to Add Energy Management to FiOS

The telecommunications giant says it is ready to support home energy management as part of its FiOS broadband offering — and sources say that will happen some time this year. How telecoms might compete or cooperate with utilities to give homeowners ways to control energy use remains to be seen.

Are Telcos Eyeing Home Energy Management?

That's what the CEO of a U.K.-based home system management company sees coming. He's working with British Telecom to help it add home energy management services to its phone, TV and Internet offerings in the U.K.

The Smart Home, Part II

The emerging "Home Area Network" is still very much in flux – and the same goes for companies seeking to make products, software and networking systems to be a part of it.

The Smart Home, Part I

Smart grid proponents like to talk about the "Home Area Network" – a communications network for thermostats, appliances and electronics that can display the energy they're using. But getting there will take a lot of time and money.

Will Utilities Control Your TV?

The ZigBee Alliance and a consortium including Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Samsung have agreed on a ZigBee-based remote control standard. Home energy monitoring and control makers say that's a route into controlling TVs and other devices using their favorite wireless standard.

Google Gets Into Home Energy Management

Google has launched PowerMeter, prototype software for measuring a home's energy use, and plans to partner with utilities and makers of power monitoring equipment to get the data the system will need.

Get Ready for the WiFi Thermostat

Startups Undeterred Despite Weak Economy

Solar Decathlon 2007: Recap, Analysis and Results