Obama Pushes “Green Button”
Originally published on Climate Progress.
By Ari Phillips.
As part of President Obama’s executive order last week, which included directing the federal government to triple its use of renewable energy by 2020, Obama instructed agencies to incorporate “Green Button” data further into their energy management practices.
First unveiled in 2012, the Green Button Initiative is literally a green button on a utility’s website that allows consumers to download their energy consumption data in a format that’s easy to understand.
According to the Department of Energy, 48 utilities and electricity suppliers serving more than 59 million homes and businesses have committed to giving customers Green Button access, and over 100 millions Americans already have access to their Green Button energy data.
The Green Button website says that the data provided to customers can be used to save energy in a number of different ways. These include customizing heating and cooling settings, helping facilitate energy-efficiency retrofitting, verifying energy-efficiency investments, and optimizing cost-effectiveness of solar panels, to name a few.
This kind of information can be especially useful in managing large campuses or apartment complexes where energy demands differ across different spaces.
In 2011, for the fifth consecutive year, American households paid more for electricity than they did the year before, reaching $1,419 that year. If having more access to data can help reduce energy use and energy costs, it’s a win-win for everyone.
Next year a similar Blue Button will be offered to provide data for healthcare records, which will allow clients to easily compile medical history and information.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
CleanTechnica Holiday Wish Book
Our Latest EVObsession Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
More lies, more staving off solutions that we ALREADY HAVE, more off in the future plans that never get accomplished. More band-aid fixes that fall apart. Why? Because the corrupt Obama administration is bought and paid for by Monsanto, big oil, coal and nuclear.
See here the TRUE distribution of wealth that this corrupt U.S. GOVERNING-OF-THE-MENTAL and what it is all about. http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are
The last thing that they want to do is to empower the family unit, the neighborhood with true and lasting DECENTRALIZED solutions.
Take a look at this to see what I mean as on LASTING solution to the synthetic pollution: The SOLAR HYDROGEN ECONOMY is most assuredly the solution to the world’s pollution! http://tinyurl.com/mdkbmyr
See Jack Nicolson lay it on the line about the “solar hydrogen economy”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjfONpsFvyM
And also what they are doing in India: http://tinyurl.com/meflvxd
Test
I personally do not believe that the average consumer cares enough to go in and make use of the data that is already available from most utilities. So Cal Edison (my electric provider) gives me basically real time consumption data and I eat it up…but I’m a numbers geek. I would say that 95% of consumers probably wont ever look at that type of data and maybe 1% will do anything with it. Dunno…
I doubt it’s as bleak as 5%/1% but I’m sure it’s not very good.
As our meters and grids get smarter I think we’ll see people paying more attention because the data will get easier to understand and use.
And I think most efficiency will happen in spite of consumers, not because of them.
Soon they won’t be able to purchase inefficient light bulbs, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc. The options in the stores will be greatly more efficient than what was there a few years earlier and people who pay no attention to their energy use will get more efficient because that will be the only option.
Can’t buy a new inefficient CRT TV these days. Only much more efficient flat screens.
Sadly the standards aren’t being raised very quickly…
Would love to see more aggressive implementation – especially in easy areas. It’s still too easy to get a computer with a power supply below 70% efficient when 95%+ is available (and economical!). Or an AC that’s SEER 16 – sure SEER 27 might not be economical, but if we push SEER 20+ we’ll get better with the technology. Not to mention refrigerators, driers, heaters (which should mostly be heat-pumps)… the list goes on.