Real-time power consumption information will help solve energy crisis

10/29/2008 15:21

If we can provide an inexpensive method for the average consumer to monitor home power usage, I expect a reduction in consumption.  A simple photoelectric receiver monitoring a standard meter can easily provide this.  Tie it to a wireless transmitter and you have an inexpensive reporting system for the common household.  From there it is simple to input the electric company rate and get a real-time dollar per hour amount.  I envision a basic LED display that reports current power usage in watts and dollars, a daily report, and a monthly report.  Add the ability to set bounds and you can get a color coded indicator when your house is using more power than you would like.  An audible signal is also an option. 

By doing this, the natural tendency would be a reduction of power.  Home owners will naturally begin to turn off lights and devices.  They may even be inclined to purchase low power devices. 

The device to monitor a meter using a photoelectric device can be seen in this patent. 

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Seth Jaffe

Are you on Google looking for Seth Jaffe? Or perhaps Seth E. Jaffe or even Seth Elliott Jaffe? You have found me in Houston, Texas working at NASA Johnson Space Center. Seth E. Jaffe is an aerospace engineer, photographer, and law student. Seth E. Jaffe and Seth Jaffe attended Casady High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma graduating in 1989. Soon after he attended Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He graduated in 1996 from University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.  He also attended Rice University were he studied Portuguese.  This little write-up has served to help Google and all of the rest of the crawling search engines find me so that I may turn up in your web search for me as opposed to the actor or the environmental attorney--both of whom have stolen my name. Happy hunting.