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Demand Side Management
On Friday I visited our technology partner SENZTEK to look at the smart devices they have built for home owners to use to understand and control their home energy use. All these devices connect to the Cortexo service and provide real demand side management; but there is much more! The smart hot water controller, that also acts as a hub or base for the Zigbee like Home Area Network (HAN), understand if there are solar thermal panels in the home and can divert extra hot water from the solar to say a spa pool or swimming pool instead of wasting it. Today there's an excellent article about SENZTEK's hardware in the New Zealand Herald.
Cortexo provides all the communications and central server software to enable the home owner to see, through the Cortexo portal, the power consumed by the devices plugged into the SENZTEK smart plug as well as the ability to immediately, or through the home users pre-set choices, turn those devices on or off allowing better management of home power. Tie that into the smart meter in the home which can pass power consumed and actual cost to Cortexo service and the home owner has good control and knowledge around his power use.
Power companies can also benefit (with the home owners permission) by being able to reach into a home and control power demand during times of peak energy requirement.
This is very exciting stuff, available now, that brings the promise of smart devices, smart homes and smart meters to New Zealand consumers now.
Cortexo and SENZTEK will be demonstrating this technology at Power & Electricity World, Sky City Convention Centre, Auckland, New Zealand from 15-18 Feb 2010. See you there!