Put a Price Tag on Power
credit: The Inadvertent Gardener
Priceless
Imagine yourself walking into your favorite grocery store. You turn right and see the bakery and produce section.
Walking up to the misting display case, you pick up an orange and scan the case for a per-pound price. Oddly, the oranges are not labeled. Oh well, you can get a few anyway.
Next, you stop for some green peppers. Are these sold by the pound or are they charged per-pepper? Hmmm… still no prices. Well, it’s nearly summer, so they’re probably sold by the pound, right?
You make your way around the store, picking up produce, canned goods, eggs and milk, and you even splurge on a little bit of fish. Still no prices. Well, maybe you’ll take just a little more fish - it IS your favorite, and it’s probably not THAT expensive.
The cart is full as you make your way to the checkout line. The cashier is quick and friendly, and as you wait to see the “damage” and slide your credit card, the cashier says “Have a great day” and sends you on your way. You protest “But I haven’t paid yet!” and he replies “Oh, don’t worry – you’ll get your bill at the end of the month.”
None of us would escape that “priceless” grocery store within our budgets. Over time, we’d lose our sense of which brands are a better bargain, and which come at a premium. You’d be constantly guessing the total of your monthly grocery bill, and you’d feel a bit victimized when it arrived in the mail each month.
Pricey
Sadly, that mythical and monstrous grocery store is designed the same way as your power bill. You live blissfully unaware of how much you’re spending until it’s too late. No one tells you which of your activities and purchases are a great bargain and which are a waste of money – you just fork over whatever they ask when the bill comes due.
Guess what: you wouldn’t accept that treatment from a grocery store, and you don’t have to accept it from your power company either.
PlotWatt
This week, I took a new job with a company that will turn the tables for all of us smart energy consumers. It’s called PlotWatt, and it can take the new wave of smart-meter data and turn it into an itemized grocery list of power.
Want to know how much more you’ll spend on AC by cranking the thermostat? Interested in just how much that water bed heater is costing you every night? Wondering whether it’s worth keeping that 20 year old “beer fridge” in the garage? PlotWatt can put a price tag on it for you.
Fact is, a lot of people would like lower power bills and just don’t know where to start. We’re going to help you with that.
But if you’re the type person with money to burn and you just want to know how to fire up that extra coal power plant – we’ve got the data you’ll need to get it done. It’s a free country, right? And knowledge is power.
You’ll hear more from me as PlotWatt scales from startup to superpower, but if you’d like to get in early on the beta phase and you’ve got a web-enabled smart meter (TED, WattVision, etc.) go to PlotWatt.com/signup and put in the secret code “Firefly” to cut to the front of the line.
Operators are standing by. Or, at least they would be if we had operators. Technically, I guess I’m standing by. 
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