In May 2014, Eyedro had the privilege of attending the White House Energy Datapalooza event in Washington, DC. The annual forum gives hundreds of like-minded innovators, thought-leaders and key decision makers the opportunity to collaborate and showcase ideas about energy data standards and applications.
Eyedro joined over 40 other technology innovators to highlight how open access to energy data, combined with innovative technologies, can be used to tackle some of the most pressing social, environmental and economic issues facing North America today.
So What is Energy Data?
Traditionally, information about your energy use (a.k.a energy data) arrives from your utility provider in the form of a bill at the end of a set usage period. It’s a high level summary which typically includes: total amount of energy used, price per unit consumed (usually kilowatt hours) and some additional fees or taxes. The problem with this model is that you only see your consumption and costs after the fact, making it nearly impossible to make in the moment decisions to reduce or change your usage.
This is exactly the problem that spawned the development of technological solutions in both the private and public sector. Smart Meters, which automatically collect and transmit energy data back to your utility provider, are replacing traditional gauge meters across North America. Similarly, devices like Eyedro’s Real-Time Electricity Monitors, collect energy data and can be installed by consumers without the help of a utility provider.
Why is Open Access to Energy Data So Important?
With millions of Smart Meters and Energy Monitors now collecting energy data, we are sitting on an untapped goldmine of information that, if used intelligently, has the potential to revolutionize how we produce and consume energy. Eyedro is helping tap this resource by taking part in new initiatives, such as the Green Button Initiative. Green Button, a part of the White House’s Energy Data Initiative, seeks to standardize and liberate energy data.
Working together, utility providers and technology innovators, like Eyedro, are creating tools that give consumers easy and secure access to energy use information from devices like smartphones and desktop computers. Combining energy data with innovative technologies, like real-time monitoring, is important because it allows us to find powerful solutions to vital problems like climate change, energy supply and rising costs – just to name a few.
As it Turns Out, Knowledge Really is Power
With access to real-time energy data it is becoming easier for consumers and businesses across North America to understand how they are using and saving energy. Empowering consumers with this knowledge means they have the ability make smart choices, and in the end helps:
Reduce Energy Waste
Cut Energy Costs
Minimize Environmental Impact
Utility Providers Meet Energy Demands
Gone are the days where, if your bill seems high, you have to think back on the last month or two and remember every possible detail. With tools like Eyedro Real-Time Electricity Monitors, energy management is as simple as reaching for your smartphone, seeing your actual energy use, and taking action – before you get stuck with the bill.
Looking for Real-Time Energy Management Solutions?
If you’re interested in real-time energy monitoring for your home or business, we’re here for you. Head on over to our products page to get started now.
Brick Brewery Keeps an Eye on Energy Savings with Eyedro
Discover how Brick Brewery turned electricity monitoring into a competitive advantage using Eyedro. This testimonial video is an example of an industrial project in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario where Brick Brewery used the Eyedro Real-Time Electricity Monitor to help verify the success of their energy saving project. Brick Brewery keeps an eye on energy savings with Eyedro and the project results are impressive.
If you have an energy saving project and would like to use Eyedro for measurement and verification then please contact us direct or an Eyedro reseller near you.
The Eyedro team is pleased to be joining the Ontario Green Button pilot with its MyEyedro cloud service (MyEyedro.com). Home and business owners in areas covered by London Hydro and Hydro One will have access to their electricity usage and costs through pilot apps designed to use Green Button data. Green Button data (from smart meters) is a significant step forward for Ontario, as consumers look for tools to better understand and control their electricity costs. The full press release by MaRS is below.
MaRS announces pilot program offering new energy management apps to Ontario consumers
TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2013 /CNW/ – Ontarians will get access to new apps to help manage their energy consumption data, thanks to a pilot program led by MaRS Discovery District, in partnership with Hydro One and London Hydro and supported by the Ministry of Energy.
Apps from Energent, BuiltSpace, Eyedro and Zerofootprint will be made available to consumers in London Hydro and Hydro One’s service territories throughout the duration of the year-long pilot program.
MaRS Data Catalyst, which brings together data and analysis to help grow Ontario’s innovation economy, and Ontario’s Ministry of Energy are working with industry partners to enable electricity consumption data access through the adoption of the Green Button Standard, already popular in the US.
Green Button aims to give Ontarians direct, timely access to their own energy data through a secure download from their utility’s website. The 4.7 million smart meters installed in homes and small businesses across the province enable consumers to access their own consumption data via the use of third-party apps.
As part of the Green Button initiative, MaRS Data Catalyst is piloting the first adoption of the Connect My Data program. Connect My Data is a voluntary initiative that will enable participating consumers to securely share their electricity consumption information with Green Button-enabled apps of their choice, which will offer consumer education and create opportunities for conservation through behaviour change, energy efficiency upgrades, energy management system automation and other potential uses.
The apps participating in the Green Button pilot program are:
Energent, a leading North American provider of model-based energy informatics and optimization for commercial, industrial and institutional applications.
BuiltSpace, a simple, secure, practical, collaborative and integrated software-as-a-service (SaaS) app for operating, maintaining and improving building portfolios.
Zerofootprint, which allows consumers to: compare their electricity consumption with that of their neighbours; understand how to reduce it; and distributes ZerofootprintRewards to those who make measurable reductions.
Eyedro Green Solutions Inc., manufacturer of the Eyedro real-time electricity monitor and MyEyedro.com cloud service, which helps users visualize electricity usage, identify waste and cut electricity costs.
Green Button Download My Data, the precursor to Connect my Data, has already been implemented across nearly 60 per cent of Ontario with participation from seven utilities. To find out more about how to participate in the Connect My Data pilot, visit: www.greenbuttondata.ca/pilots .
About MaRS MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) is a mission-driven innovation centre located in Toronto. MaRS works with partners to catalyze, accelerate and amplify innovation. MaRS supports entrepreneurs building Canada’s next generation of growth companies. In the last three years, MaRS startup clients have raised over $750 million in capital, earned over $375 million in revenue and hired well over 3,500 workers into knowledge economy jobs.
About MaRS Data Catalyst MaRS Data Catalyst brings together data and analysis from a variety of partners to track, quantify and grow Ontario’s innovation economy. It uses data and insight to support the province’s entrepreneurs, researchers, policy-makers and innovators.
About Hydro One Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario’s 29,000 km high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 km low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.
About London Hydro London Hydro Incorporated is a Local Distribution Company with the City of London as its sole shareholder. London Hydro has been rated at the 5th most efficient utility in the province of Ontario and delivers a safe, reliable supply of electricity to over 149,000 customers spanning a territory of 425 square kilometers. A summer peaking utility with an average peak load of 675 MW, London Hydro’s all-time peak was set on August 2, 2006 at 719 MW.
SOURCE MaRS Discovery District
For further information: Melissa Hughes Manager, Media & Community Relations MaRS Discovery District (416) 673-8200 ext. 2710 mhughes@marsdd.com
In most instances in cities like Montgomery, Alabama and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, consumers receive phone calls or knocks on their door from people impersonating utility representatives stating if they do not make immediate payments their services will be shut off.
“In order to avoid an interruption of service, the caller instructs the customer to go to a local retail store and purchase a pre-paid bank card for a certain amount. Customers then must call a particular phone number and provide the numeric codes from that bank card.”
– Dixie Electric
Unlike credit cards bills and bank statements which provide details for every transaction, utility costs vary not only by season, but day and time of day. Readings are provided in a lump sum at the end of the billing cycle, making it nearly impossible to differentiate electric costs and consumption other than comparing bills from one month to the next.
The hard pressed situation here is that because modern day society depends on electricity, consumers have conditioned themselves to expect a figure from their service provider despite understanding how the figure is formed.
Do you as a restaurant owner, homeowner or small business owner understand why your electricity bills are the way they are? If a storm disrupts the meters which track your electricity use, how would you justify the costs? If you’re not mindful of off-peak and on-peak hours how do you process your monthly statements? These are the loopholes in which scam artists find their prey. More specific demographics include the elderly and immigrant families where English is not the first language. Anyone who thinks they’ve been a victim or a potential victim of utility scams should report the information to their local authorities.
If you want to find out how to make sense of your utility bills visit Eyedro.com
These guidelines (“Guidelines”) are for Eyedro Green Solutions Inc. (“Eyedro”)’s licensees, authorized Wholesalers, wholesalers, resellers, customers, and other parties wishing to use Eyedro’s trademarks, service marks or images (collectively, “Eyedro Marks”) in promotional, advertising, instructional, or reference materials, or on their web sites, products, labels, or packaging.
If you are a licensee of an Eyedro Mark and have been provided with special usage guidelines with your agreement with Eyedro, those guidelines shall apply. If your agreement does not provide usage guidelines, then these guidelines shall apply.
Eyedro reserves the right to modify these Guidelines at any time and from time to time, and each such modification shall be effective upon posting on Eyedro’s website. All material modifications will apply prospectively only. Your continued use of the Eyedro Marks following any such modification constitutes your agreement to be bound by and your acceptance of these Guidelines as so modified. It is therefore important that you review these Guidelines regularly.
If you have any questions regarding these guidelines, please contact Eyedro at:
Eyedro Green Solutions Inc. 550 Parkside Drive, Unit B1 Waterloo, ON, N2L5V4 tel:888-440-7610
Guidelines
1. Except for the limited right to use as expressly permitted under these Guidelines, no other rights of any kind are granted hereunder, by implication or otherwise.
2. During the duration of your agreement with Eyedro, and only during such time, you shall have the non-exclusive right to use the Eyedro Marks in connection with the marketing, promotion, distribution and sale of Eyedro products and services that you have the right to market, promote, distribute and sell, and, except as permitted in writing by Eyedro, for no other purpose whatsoever.
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4. By using an Eyedro Mark, in whole or in part, you acknowledge and agree that the goodwill derived from using any part of an Eyedro trademark exclusively inures to the benefit of and belongs to Eyedro.
5. You shall not incorporate or include any Eyedro Mark in your company name, product or service name, or domain name. You shall not use Eyedro Marks in any manner that directly or indirectly expresses or implies Eyedro sponsorship, affiliation, certification, approval, or endorsement in relation to your product or service or in such a manner that it appears that Eyedro is legally associated with your company.
6. Your product name shall not be confusingly similar to any Eyedro Mark.
7. Reference to an Eyedro Mark shall not be the most prominent visual element on packaging or other marketing materials for your product or service. Your company name and/or logo, your product or service name, and your graphic identity should be significantly larger than any reference to an Eyedro Mark.
8. Prior to the use or distribution by you of any Eyedro Mark in connection with marketing and/or promotional materials, any advertisement, brochure, or other material of any sort whatsoever that bears any of the Eyedro Marks (other than those materials, if any, provided to you by Eyedro), you will submit such advertisement, brochure or other material to Eyedro for its approval, which approval may be withheld by Eyedro in its absolute discretion.
9. You shall not remove or alter any Eyedro Marks or any other intellectual property or other notices accompanying an Eyedro Mark, and shall ensure that all copyrighted materials are acknowledged in each instance of use, in both electronic and paper format, as Eyedro may direct in its reasonable discretion.
10. Upon termination of the applicable agreement between you and Eyedro, you will, at your sole expense, and without the payment by Eyedro of any compensation of any nature whatsoever, cease all use of the Eyedro Marks.
With millions of Smart Meters and Energy Monitors now collecting energy data, we are sitting on an untapped goldmine of information that, if used intelligently, has the potential to revolutionize how we produce and consume energy. Eyedro is helping tap this resource by taking part in new initiatives, such as the Green Button Initiative. Green Button, a part of the White House’s Energy Data Initiative, seeks to standardize and liberate energy data.
