Safe, healthy and fulfilling life entirely depends upon electricity. And we consume a lot of it. In the EU, households are responsible for about the quarter of all energy consumption and a third of that comes from electricity. Residential electricity use went up by a fifth in the last 15 years and with the spread of electric cars, home automation gadgets, electric space and water heating and A/C and the myriad of devices we use, this trend is likely to accelerate in the future.
About half of the electricity you pay for can be considered waste. That is 500 euros wasted for an average German household, and 600 USD for an average US home. And this may be an understatement. Inefficient devices, unawareness and a considerable ‘baseline’ consumption can independently waste as much energy in a household, as you would actually need to operate everything.
According to a study by the International Energy Agency, an average household could halve its consumption by upgrading all appliances to the currently available best technology. The same study found that appliances in “standby” represent about half of all the consumed energy in the researched households. And if you think that small things like a phone charger, or laptop don’t count, then think again. The consumption of many little things quickly adds up.
You should also be aware of your habits, because they matter a lot. People were observed to consume up to 2.5 times more (or less) energy than their peers living in the exact same setting. This huge gap can be entirely attributed to behavioural differences. Researchers have found that giving a more frequent feedback to people about their household’s consumption can decrease energy use and associated costs by up to 20%, if done right.
As you can see from these numbers there is plenty of room for improvement. By addressing wasteful habits and upgrading the right appliances you can achieve considerable savings. This is good for you, for the society at large and for the planet.
But to take action, you have to have a sense of your home’s electricity use and for most of us this is not possible today. In 2017 the majority of households still uses 19th century technology to measure electricity consumption. Traditional electricity meters do not provide any meaningful feedback for us and ‘smart meters’ recently installed in several countries across the globe have not improved much on the situation.
MET3R wants to change the status quo and provide a 21st century user experience for residential consumers. We design a service that helps you to address all the roots of energy waste with ease. With MET3R you get personalised saving tips and instant feedback on the effect of your actions. MET3R breaks your electricity consumption down to the appliance level, so you can identify your energy hogs in need of an urgent update. As you get a sense of your household’s energy use it will be also simple to identify habit changes that can effectively reduce the amount of energy you unnecessarily waste. On the way you save money (actually a lot) and reduce your environmental footprint.
MET3R wants to build the smart electricity service of the 21st century. Stay with us on this amazing journey. Follow this blog to get the latest about our progress and learn about the future of home energy use.
