I tend to be wish wash when it comes to green and going green… however, this video of John La Grou talking about the smart power outlets has me very intrigued. I hope this really catches on… both to save people and homes from electrical fires as well as saving loads of energy. He notes that there are over 10 billion electrical outlets in US alone!! Yikes…
I’m glad that you posted this, Peter.
Kinda, interesting and I like the safety aspect of it, but couple of points:
1. having someone being able to control my usage from some central location is a little disturbing.
2. I doubt the environmental impact will be that that great because a) the manufacturing process would have an impact and b) having something like this around the house may actually encourage more usage – stuff like: hey, I am saving some money, so why dont I lower my ac one more degree so I can be more comfortable? (unless of course, central control shuts that down).
3. He speaks about how circuit breaker is a 100 yr old technology, but there was nothing beyond that statement. The interesting thing for me would have been analyzing the why. I highly doubt that no matter how smart this guy is, that no other guys from back in the 60s and 70s were not thinking of more advanced ways to prevent electrical fires, accidental electrocution and saving some green.