Agilewaves System Tracks, Adjusts Home Power Usage

Lighting gobbles up 11.7 percent of a typical home's electrical bill. Another 11 percent of the electrical cost is attributable to the HVAC system.

A flat-screen TV uses 120 watts of power when turned on and 40 watts when off. A DVD player uses up to 25 watts of power. And an audio system can draw up to 400 watts of power.

Those are just some of the power consumptions that many of your clients are becoming more aware of as energy prices skyrocket and the amount they are spending to power their electronics competes with the same household dollars necessary to heat the home and run the refrigerator.

Integrators are also finding themselves doing more installations than ever in homes using alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The bottom line is that homeowners now want to know how much energy they are using and, more importantly, how they can curtail that energy usage using technology.

A new system from a company called Agilewaves Inc. promises to make integration with the low-voltage control more seamless than ever with line voltage usage.

Using the power of a whole-house control system, the system can automatically actuate change to alter gas/water/electrical usage to stay within prescribed limits, giving the homeowner complete automated control over his utilities using a low-voltage system.

How? The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company has announced native integration of its Resource Monitor product with a Crestron control system.

The system doesn't just tell the homeowner that his electrical, water or gas bill is going up, it actually affects some sort of change to mitigate it. For example, it can raise the thermostat or lower the shades.

"We are closing the gap between feedback and action," says Collin Breakstone, vice president of Agilewaves Inc.

Why pay to run your refrigerator from 1:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. when it won't lose a single degree of temperature if turned off for 90 minutes in the middle of the night? Why pay to keep a motorized shade control system active all day and all night, pulling hundreds of watts of power, when it is typically used only 30 seconds a day?

These are some of the solutions integrators can now bring to their clients.

"End users want to be empowered to do the right thing," says Breakstone.

Feedback Cuts Consumption

According to the US Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for 39 percent of all U.S. energy consumption.

Agilewaves' Resource Monitor delivers real-time information via touchscreen, Web page or phone, about gas, electricity and water use. Studies have shown that feedback alone can yield an average 10 percent to 15 percent reduction in consumption, often far exceeding 20 percent. It's called "The Prius Effect."

Control systems, such as those made by Crestron, can automate electric, gas and water systems as well as lighting, HVAC, entertainment and security. By "closing the loop" between feedback and control, Agilewaves has connected consumption monitoring with its management from a single interface.