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Enio Energy Management are a new start-up company, working on ways to help reduce our power consumption. We interviewed Enio Co-Founder, Nick Franklin, on how the company came about, what the service offers and where it's headed in the future. Plus we have passes directly onto the Enio private alpha for 20 Automated Home readers - read on and check out the special link below.
Hi Nick, can you tell us a little about your background please? - I've worked for web technology companies in various roles from product and community management to business development. My main passion is for creating new and disruptive products that people rave about. My two co-founders are also from the technology industry in and around London, one hails from the engineering side and has a lot of experience building scalable web solutions, the other a business guy with a tonne of experience running tech businesses here and in the US. So how did Enio come about then? - Enio's three founders have had a shared interest for energy efficiency in the home for some time. There are many ways to achieve an energy efficient home, but we feel, given our backgrounds and interests that we can have the most impact by creating new technologies aimed at empowering people to manage, monitor and reduce their home energy consumption. It is a widely held view, and one we believe in, that a good understanding of how you are consuming energy is essential in order to know best how to reduce consumption. We agree. So can you explain what exactly Enio is? - Enio is a service that helps you monitor and reduce your home energy costs. Enio monitors how much energy you're consuming, either automatically through a connected live monitor, or via manual entry of meter readings. Enio then uses this information, coupled with some details about your home, to give you accurate and useful recommendations on how to make your home more efficient. Enio also tracks the 'complete loop', so each time you make a physical change (e.g. upgrade your fridge), or behavioural change (start air drying your clothes), we track the effectiveness of each change on your bottom line consumption and costs. This data then feeds back into Enio's database so the system learns and gives better and more accurate recommendations to all of Enio's members.  
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Sounds great, but how much does the service cost? - It is completely free, we want every home to benefit. However, it works best with a compatible live monitor which does cost a few quid, although some energy providers (e-on) are now giving these away to customers for free. If you don't have a live monitor you can always enter your meter readings manually - and we are going to introduce a feature that will email you at intervals reminding you to input a new reading (this feature will of course be optional). OK, so what hardware does Enio support for data capture? - At present we only support the CurrentCost Envi (coupled with a data cable and some free Windows software which we provide). We are going to be adding support for many more devices in the coming months. We're especially interested in devices that connect directly to the internet via the router (such as the new currentcost bridge), bypassing the need for a PC. We also have a simple API which allows members with coding skills to input their meter readings automatically using any system they choose. Can Automated Home readers set this all up themselves? - Yes, you simply sign up at www.enio.co.uk - right now we are in a 'private alpha' phase, which means that you have to input your email address and then wait to be invited. This is a temporary measure while we work any issues out of the system and bring the service to the point that it's ready for a mass market. We really want to get feedback from as many people as possible, especially those already interested in this space such as the readers of Automated Home. If you would like to take the system for a spin please do enter your email on our site or try below for one of the 20 free invites. Thanks, so what does the future hold for enio? - We think that Enio has the potential to have a real impact on the energy efficiency of homes in Great Britain. We aim to become the best place to manage your energy and get advice on how to reduce your consumption. We hope to build a service that gets used regularly by every household in the UK and in turn has a positive impact on our users' pockets and everyone's environment. Many thanks for answering our questions Nick! - Thanks Mark, we'd like to give 20 invites out to Automated Home reader, just
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for a chance of an invite. Enio.co.uk : Buy a Current Cost Meter for Enio : Other Energy Meters
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