Written by Maria McKavanagh, Chief Innovation Officer at Verv
Climate change is finally starting to get some of the recognition it deserves, in no small part due to the activism of Greta Thunberg and her army of school strikers. She became vegan and gave up flying to minimise her own carbon emissions and this attitude of each of us “doing our bit” to reduce the negative impact on the planet will hopefully propagate across the world.
For many of us, giving up flying wouldn’t be an easy choice. For me it would mean I couldn’t see my family back in Ireland which is hugely important to me, however, there are many small steps we could all take which would have a dramatic impact on how green we are as a country and as a planet.
The sad fact of modern life though is that very few of us have time to think about the choices we are making and how those impact the planet. This lack of time, however, has contributed to the adoption of many smart devices. People are now ordering their groceries through Amazon Alexa; Amazon Dash buttons are used to order toilet roll when you start to run out; there are even WiFi ovens which ensure they are pre-heated by the time you get home from work, ready for you to make dinner. The role of these devices is actually much more significant than just saving time, they can also play a role in saving the environment.
I believe that just as a health tracker alerts you to how many steps you have taken that day (and perhaps advises you to take a few more), we need to bring alerts into our energy use to help us make better choices. Rather than relying on government policy to drive change, by altering how people use energy in their home, everyone contributes.
When we think about smart home devices and energy, smart meters are the obvious technology that come to mind. They sample energy consumption data in a home between once every 6 seconds to once per minute. This means while they can provide the total cost of your energy usage, they miss the opportunity to provide enough detail to encourage long-term behavioural change in the home that would ultimately lead to lower energy bills and increased efficiency.
The key to improving this system and opening up entirely new insights into the home is unlocking the granular energy data within it. Systems, such as Verv, sample energy data at up to 5 million times faster than a smart meter and use artificial intelligence to identify the usage and cost of individual appliances. This real-time information about your appliances is what unlocks information that extends far beyond spending.
Critically, what devices like this can do is educate consumers on their energy use, breaking down the cost and Co2 emissions of individual appliances within the home. Homeowners will be shocked to discover that simple things, such as keeping the fridge door open while deciding what to eat accounts for 7 per cent of the appliance’s total energy usage.
In addition, it’s a common fact that old appliances can be one of the biggest drains on electricity usage, yet many consumers are unaware of when their appliances are inefficient or on the edge of breaking. Further, the decision made when purchasing a new one can have a significant impact on not only your finances but also on the environment. With TVs for example, LED screens cut down energy leakage significantly compared to old plasmas since they are less likely to overheat and require less energy to maintain your screen brightness. By purchasing a device with a low energy cost, the new model will be able to pay for itself in a short number of years. On a larger scale, corporations can employ this technology to make entire buildings more environmentally friendly.
Another example would be Google Nest, the smart thermostat which automatically switches off when no one is at home and heats your home gradually to the desired temperature by the time you arrive home (which stops you coming in and blasting the heating on the top setting to heat the place quicker). It even shows you how to reduce your consumption with a handy leaf icon.
And as smart homes expand into smart cities, IOT devices will extend from being connected home technology to technology that actually connects homes with one another. If you take peer-to-peer energy trading for example, in the future, this will enable consumers with solar panels to sell excess energy that they generate directly with their neighbours via a smart home device like Verv, utilising blockchain. This could also allow people for whom the cost of installing a renewable energy generator would be prohibitive to purchase completely clean energy directly and at a lower price. It also enables those with domestic renewables to improve their return on investment, a particularly important point given the lack of government subsidies to support a key solution like this for tackling climate change. At Verv we are currently working with local councils to support residents through initiatives like these.
As we look for solutions for critical environmental issues, it’s essential that we leverage the support brought about by the technology advances and innovation in today’s IoT devices — there’s never been a more exciting time to work in energy.
