The Tenherte PICOWatt allows any appliance plugged into it to be controlled from a computer or smartphone. It also measures the power used by the appliance, can schedule its control and cleverly can actually decide itself when best to turn it on and off.
As your electricity supplier enables Smart Grid technologies you will, for example, be able to have 2-way devices like the PICOWatt ‘talk’ to the grid and decide the cheapest time to turn on your washing machine.
The PICOwatt launches on Earth Day (22nd April) at around $80…
tenrehte.com : [Via: New York Times]
I must say that I’m very suspissious to the Smart Grid agenda at least.
This is pushed as a customer benefit – you can run devices when electricity is cheaper. But I have a feeling that this will mean also that at the other time the electricity will be way more expensive than today.
The trouble with all this “smart grid” is that my washing machine and dish washer don’t actually start if you just turn them on at the mains plug. They both have soft start buttons which need to be pressed… So even if the elecy is cheaper at 3am, I still have to be there to tuen them on…