R.E.S.P.C.T.
It may sound simple, but nowadays there is an emerging generation of people buying homes, condos, or living in apartments, that are computer savvy and environmentally conscious. Present Demand Response (DR) programs tend to treat the "customer" or homeowner like simpletons, needing to have a utility or electrical contractor's truck roll to install a thermostat or appliance device. Certainly that installation does have a bit of technical competence which is necessary, but there are many devices being designed to have very simple do-it-yourself installation.
With HomePlug (www.homeplug.org) and ZigBee (www.zigbee.org) devices, "no new wires" are needed and the MAC and PHY levels of the networking architecture are self configurable and self healing. Some 802.11 routers can be a bit challenging at times, the newer devices strive for simplicity. The concept of Negawatt is to deploy the simplest of home energy savings devices that can be installed within the skill sets of the common homeowner. Furthermore the command and control profile will entirely web based, and be no more complicated than what is customary necessary to set up a profile on MySpace or doing a transaction on eBay. Sure this will be beyond the reach of certain non-computer people, and a spin-off service can always be started to fill in the "simpleton" market segment when necessary.
What respect gets you?
It gets you a few very substantial benefits. First and foremost it saves about $500 per customer right off the top. By this I mean the truck roll, at $150/hr for a man and vehicle, plus the administrative backup of the infrastructure to provide that service is clearly a figure in the hundreds of dollars, depending on the methods you wish to account for the service call. If the product could be done by the consumer, the savings are immediate and substantial.
Secondly the customer gets a better working knowledge of the system components, and has a better understanding of the functionality of the energy savings program.
An interesting fact exists that within the PG&E DR program deployed by Good Cents where they installed thousands of Programmable Thermostats. Over 80% of the programmable thermostats are switched to manual or not working correctly in the automatic mode. People get easily frustrated. Let's face it, VCR's used to be known to flash 12:00 each time the power cycled, as people got lazy or confused on some of the simplest consumer electronics.
Today their exists a generation of people, many of whom are first time home buyers, that grew up with earth friendly consciousness such as recycling, that will thrive in the Negawatt environment. Initially the products will be not only be cost justified and offer immediate savings, but over time as energy expenses surly increase so will the savings.
Moving?
Negawatt components will have an element of transportability from home to home, when a customer moves from one location to another. Whether it's a college dorm session ending, a lease up at an apartment, or a new home, the Negawatt system components can become personal property that is transported similarly to a stereo or entertainment system. People will have an investment in their energy efficiency peripherals, knowledge in their use, and expectations of savings throughout the life of the components - not their longevity in the address they're occupying. This is another revolutionary concept that energy efficiency becomes a personal profile of the individual, with preferences and customizations that are achieved. You know, in this country, a good year for home building (new home construction) is about 1.5 million new homes, but 15 million households move each year.
