Watching your daily watts may not be everyone’s cup of tea. And I have a kettle that goes on the gas stovetop when I want a cuppa anyhow. That said, however, it’s amazing what having real-time data on electricity use literally at your fingertips tells you about how those nasty quarterly power bills come about. When you have a household of … [Read more...]

If smarter energy use for a clean energy future is what you want, how important is accurate, readily available and well-targeted data? Hold that thought. The Australian Government is busy creating a whole new suite of acronyms in the domain of energy saving, with a funding pool of $340 million up for grabs. It’s great news for energy … [Read more...]

Having recently attended an official briefing for the proposed National Energy Saving Initiative (NESI), a prediction: We'll all be waiting quite a while for the single most sensible and important clean energy future reform still undone in Australia. For mine, a market-based national energy efficiency scheme with tradable certificates makes … [Read more...]

The United Nations has made 2012 the Year of Sustainable Energy for All, but MURRAY HOGARTH* thinks it can be the year when electricity in Australia is changed forever**.  Business schools will explore the latest ‘Kodak moment’ for decades to come. For the purposes of this post, it’s that elusive point in time when digital technology … [Read more...]

Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph, which says its Australia's biggest selling newspaper, has kicked off the 2012 consumer alarm season with the front page splash 'DARK AGES' (January 15, 2012). The sub-heading explains: 'As power prices continue to surge, families now told: Get ready for blackouts'. The main villains, we're told, are a … [Read more...]

If you buy the newspaper or fork out your hard-earned to look behind its online pay wall, the Australian Financial Review (January 11th, 2012) carried an op-ed plea for action on rolling out smart meters from a major utility perspective. Written by big energy player AGL's respected head of economic policy and sustainability, Tim Nelson, and his … [Read more...]

The blogosphere is filling up with 2012 tips and trends for corporate sustainability, greener living, making the smart grid work and just about everything else you can imagine. Rather than make up a whole bunch of our own, this Post will pick and choose from what's already on offer, and then drill down briefly on what we think is really … [Read more...]

We're looking for at least 10 Golden Rules of Wattwatching - although we've only made it up to 7 so far on our provisional list. 1. The best watts are the ones you never use. 2. Always talk to everyone about Wattwatching. This is not Fight Club! Sharing and comparing electricity use data generates insights, understanding and action. 3. … [Read more...]

Nearly everyone uses electricity every day, certainly in the wealthy developed world. Most of us take our electricity from a grid, with a very small minority operating off-grid through remote location or a strong sense of energy independence. But how satisfied are we as consumers of electricity? There are many reasons to think the likely … [Read more...]