Just in time for Christmas, ;), Blue Line Innovations announced this week that its PowerCost Monitor will be compatible with Google PowerMeter through Blue Line’s new Wi-Fi module.
This is exciting. The Blue Line PowerCost energy monitor is one of the simplest, easiest to use home energy monitors on the market (for a demonstration, see our installation and trial video here), and Google PowerMeter is, well, a Google product, and it’s great.
If you’re unfamiliar with either, here’s a quick rundown: the PowerCost monitor is an energy monitoring device that comes in two parts. You hook a sensor (part 1) to your electric meter, it collects data directly from your meter and transmits it to a handheld display unit (part 2) inside your house. Google PowerMeter is free software that displays your home’s electricity use online, in real time, stores historical electricity data, gives recommendations for improvement, and provides a platform for competition with neighbors, etc. The final component here is the Blue Line Wi-Fi connector, which sends data from your PowerCost monitor directly to Google PowerMeter.
Blue Line announced that their Wi-Fi connector would be compatible with Google PowerMeter’s now-primary-competitor Microsoft Hohm back in November; and PowerMeter has been available for some time now through partnerships with other energy monitoring devices, eMonitor and TED 5000 among them, as well as its compatibility with smart meters. But the new partnership is a welcome sign that the home energy monitoring field is truly coming into its own, with really great energy monitoring devices and really great software becoming increasingly compatible, at the same time that options are becoming both increasingly sophisticated and increasingly affordable.
Though this post wasn't intended as a sales pitch, the Blue Line PowerCost Monitor happens to be available in our store for $99. The Wi-Fi connector is an additional $149, and Google PowerMeter is free to download here.
Kindest wishes for the holidays, folks.
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