Do-it-yourself home energy audit, courtesy of your smartphone

By | August 30, 2010, 7:02am PDT

Summary: A British developer, Qreative Medias, has introduced a Home Energy Performance application that works on iPhones and iPads. The idea is that you can either rate your own property OR check out the energy profile of a home you might be thinking about buying. The application cooks up several different types of energy efficiency scores, [...]

A British developer, Qreative Medias, has introduced a Home Energy Performance application that works on iPhones and iPads. The idea is that you can either rate your own property OR check out the energy profile of a home you might be thinking about buying. The application cooks up several different types of energy efficiency scores, appropriate for the United States, the United Kingdom or Europe. In the United States, the software uses recommendations from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and the U.S. Department of Energy Building America initiative.

So far, the application (which costs $3.99 to download) is available in English, French and Spanish.

Just for grins, I did a quick search on the Apple store to see how many other applications of a similar sort come up if you look for home energy management applications. There are easily 30 of them that have some sort of energy connection, such as a solar panel installation guide ($4.99) from New Jersey Solar Consulting to simple green guides and tips that are either free or pretty inexpensive (99 cents) to a $99 application (yes, $99!) from Mobile Integrated Solutions that is designed to let you manage the intelligent energy controllers throughout your home via your iPhone.

Out of curiosity, I also ran a search on the Appolicous store for Android applications that is run in concert with Yahoo! Although they are harder to find, there are some there, including a free energy savings calculator that lets you figure out cost reductions you might find related to inefficient appliances and lightbulbs.

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Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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