Month: June 2011

A Single Platform for the Smart Home

AlertMe showcases home energy management, control and automation at SmartLIFE

AlertMe, the pioneering online Smart Home and Home Energy Management Company, demonstrates its web-enabled Home Energy Management and Control services at the Cambridge SmartLIFE centre for a visit by  Energy and Climate Change Secretary of State Chris Huhne in March 2011.

Based on the company’s award-winning Home Area Network (HAN) and cloud-based platform, AlertMe provides consumers with visibility, control and automation of their home energy (electricity and heating) online anytime, anywhere. AlertMe uses real-time two-way communication that allows consumers to manage and control a wide range of home activities over the internet and via their smart phone, saving up to 15-20% on their energy bills, reducing their carbon footprint and providing increased efficiency, convenience, comfort and peace of mind.

AlertMe works independent of, or in tandem with new Smart Meters, enhancing and extending the benefits of the Smart Grid to the consumer.

Features include:

  • Electricity power use and cost (in real-time, historically and with prediction of monthly and annual electricity costs)
  • Time of day use and cost breakdown
  • Heating control and automation
  • Carbon footprint equivalent
  • Appliance & device control (with Smartplugs and in future directly with Smart Appliances)
  • Home monitoring

The AlertMe web enabled Energy Starter Kit costs £49.99 with a £1.99 a month subscription, making home energy monitoring widely accessible.

The AlertMe Home Energy Management Service provides an innovative and affordable solution for the UK’s broadband-enabled homes (over 70%) by integrating everything into a single unified and intuitive service for the consumer. A great example of ‘The Internet of Things’, part of AlertMe exists ‘in the cloud’ and part in the home, creating a Home Area Network (HAN) that connects the user to their home energy and devices from anywhere in the world at any time.

The underlying technology features embedded software running on ZigBee enabled devices (such as an electricity meter reader, home heating thermostat, temperature and motion sensors, in home display) which communicate using encrypted wireless with the home hub gateway, which in turn is connected via the user’s broadband router to a the AlertMe cloud computing platform. Analytics and disaggregation of this data allows AlertMe to provide the consumer with personalised information about their own home, appliances and energy use along with tips to improve their personal efficiency.

AlertMe provides its services directly to consumers and also through partners such as Utilities, Telecommunication Companies, and other technology providers of Smart Grid, Smart Home and Home Electronics technology.

Home Energy Management for consumers is a relatively new area, but it is widely accepted that by giving consumers visibility and control of their home energy use and cost they can achieve savings of between 15% and 25% on their energy bills by identifying waste and more efficient ways to use their home appliances. For example; the Energy Saving Trust estimates that we waste electricity to the tune of over £900 million a year through appliances left on standby.

About AlertMe.com Ltd

www.alertme.com

AlertMe provides simple and affordable home energy management and connected home services both directly to consumers and indirectly through channel partners such as Utilities, Telecommunications companies and OEMs. Based on a single Home Area Network (HAN) platform, AlertMe allows consumers to monitor, control and automate a wide range of services in the home, such as energy use, heating, Solar PV and security, online and via their smart phone anywhere, anytime.

AlertMe allows partners to provide their customers with new services that enhance the customer relationship, improve customer loyalty and increase revenue.  The company provides consumers with the tools to reduce their energy consumption and bills by 15-20% and to participate in meeting Government targets and objectives for energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction.

AlertMe is private and venture backed by British Gas, Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

 

Posted by admin on

Childrens cold homes misery ‘unacceptable’, warns leading health expert

Cold British homes that increase the risk of mental and physical illness in children and young people are unacceptable and avoidable, warns public health expert Professor Sir Michael Marmot in a new report by his UCL research team for Friends of the Earth launched on 12 May 2011.

Friends of the Earth is calling for the Government to protect people’s health and help slash the UK’s carbon footprint by leading a nationwide refurb of heat-leaking British houses through legislation in its new Energy Bill, currently being debated in Parliament.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot said:

“Upgrading this country’s cold homes would be a double win – improving people’s health and protecting the environment. The evidence is certainly strong enough to recommend action.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for a Warm Homes Amendment to the Energy Bill requiring the Government to produce a strategy to fully insulate enough homes to tackle fuel poverty and climate change. More than a quarter [27 per cent] of the UK’s carbon emissions come from our homes.

Full press Release:-

Friends of the Earth: Childrens cold homes misery ‘unacceptable’, warns leading health expert.

Full Report: –

‘The Health Impacts of Cold Homes and Fuel Poverty’

Posted by admin on

How to reduce energy consumption in period homes

Simple draught-proofing may be all you need to keep the heat in, but care also needs to be taken with windows. Chris Wood, head of building conservation and research at English Heritage (EH), fears that the energy-saving lobby is encouraging huge numbers of owners of Victorian and Georgian houses to have eco-makeovers, and that thousands of lovely old windows will be lost for ever. This has been exacerbated by a marketing drive from double-glazing salesmen offering plastic-framed units as energy-savers.

‘Many original timber sash windows have lasted more than 200 years, and are capable of lasting another century,’ comments Dr Simon Thurley, EH’s chief executive. ‘It’s a waste to throw them away unneces-sarily.’ Research carried out on windows rescued from a skip by EH shows that they keep heat in much more efficiently after some repair.

Full article:-

How to reduce energy consumption in period homes | News – Property News, News from the Countryside and Culture | Houses for sale, properties for sale – Country Life.

Posted by admin on

Thermal imaging to identify leaks in homes

Thermal imaging photography can be used to find out where the cracks and gaps in a building are located is by means It detects where the thermal insulation, windows, constructions etc. are faulty by identifying the leaks through which the heated air (in cold regions) or cool air-conditioning air (in warm regions) disappears.

On a thermal image, warm objects stand out well against cooler backgrounds making it very easy to map the following:

  • The building’s thermal bridges (a thermal bridge is a part of a building design which is uninsulated or less insulated than other parts. Thermal bridges can be uninsulated holes and cracks, lack of insulation in the insulation layer, spotlights and other installations that penetrate the insulation layer)
  • Walls without or with poor insulation
  • Draught problems
  • Leaking windows
  • Leaking roof constructions
  • In this way, thermal imaging gives an overview of the necessary actions to reduce the energy consumption in a building and is normally carried out by specialist companies.

 

On a thermal image, warm objects stand out well against cooler backgrounds. This makes it easy to identify un-insulated constructions and thermal bridges.

Original source: Rockwool

 


Posted by admin on

Thermal Imaging Survey Reveals – Close Your Shutters

Thermal imaging surveys of historic buildings conducted by Edinburgh World Heritage last year, have clearly revealed how effective shutters, curtains and blinds are at preventing heat loss through windows.

A thermal imaging camera reveals where heat is leaking from a building, with hot areas showing up red and colder surfaces in blue. Throughout Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site the results were consistent, where shutters and curtains were closed they proved to be highly effective in keeping in the heat.

The images below show left: Shutters – first floor internal shutters closed, ground floor left open. Georgian New Town house. right: Shutters and blinds – window at top right has internal shutters and blinds closed. Victorian tenement.

 

Full article: –


Lothian Life the magazine for Edinburgh and the Lothians » Archive » Thermal Imaging Survey Reveals – Close Your Shutters.

Posted by admin on