Using the web to track power consumption at home is something several companies are working on at the moment (including Google). Tokyo-based startup Sassor is developing a solution that offers two big selling points: their so-called Energy Literacy Platform (ELP) [English link] lets you track each household appliance individually and makes it possible to turn these devices off remotely, for example by pushing a button on your smartphone.
The Energy Literacy Platform is based on the idea that by empowering consumers with a tool that informs them how much energy their appliances really use, they will start saving energy. The platform consists of three parts:
- ELP modules you place between your various power outlets and home appliances.
- The ELP receiver that harvests power consumption data to the server.
- A website or smartphone app that lets you track how much energy each appliance uses and even allows you to turn devices off remotely if needed.
The modules change their color over time, from green to yellow and finally to red, as you approach the energy limit you previously set on the ELP website or app (see below).
On the web, your energy consumption is visualized in more detail, helping you to track the exact amount of energy (and money) consumed by each device in real-time. What’s cool is that you can turn off things while on-the-go through the ELP website or the smartphone app, for example if you forgot to turn off the lights in your house.
The Energy Literacy Platform Project has come out of Japanese seed acceleration program Open Network Lab (which we covered extensively here). Maker Sassor, run by a group of students from Keio University’s Graduate School of Media Design in Tokyo, expects to launch the platform in summer next year.
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