It's one thing to know how much energy you're consuming at any given moment, it's quite another to have a GridPoint system installed in your house.  Both of GridPoint's devices (the Connect and the Protect) save you money by peak shaving.  For example, the GridPoint system will store electricity during off-peak hours when electricity can be as much as 10 times cheaper.  Then, during the day, when most people are using electricity, that stored energy powers your house and you don't have to buy the expensive juice.  This, of course, assumes that your utility company charges extra for peak use, but, as energy gets more expensive, this will become more prevalent. 

Both GridPoint systems are built around a series of batteries and a Pentium computer which is both a client and a server.  The GridPoint computer constantly checks your household energy use and the prices the utilities are charging and decides when to store energy, when to do nothing, and when to pump electricity into your house.

More after the Jump

Even more exciting, the Connect system actually has the added feature of being the only device capable of managing your in-house renewable energy and selling it back to the electric company!  Again, GridPoint is constantly in contact with the electric company so, if it can make more by selling the energy you're producing and operating the house off batteries, then it does that.  The GridPoint system also has a really cool, web-enabled application (demo here) that lets you see what GridPoint is doing with your energy and how much energy you're producing and using and how much money you're saving. 

This kind of technology, really, could change the way the power grid in this country works.  It could help America decentralize its energy generation and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.  And, somehow, save us all money while creating a new sector of the economy and giving us all more control over our lifestyles. 

Via CNet News

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