Automated Energy Efficiency

Since heating and cooling account for about half a typical US household’s energy consumption, it’s not surprising that programmable thermostats have been an important tool in energy efficiency and load-reduction efforts to date. Until now, thermostat control was limited to the device itself—there was little utilities could do to influence customer behavior or track results after it was installed.

Opower has partnered with Honeywell to reimagine the home energy user experience and motivate sustained behavior change among utility customers. Our comprehensive Automated Energy Efficiency solution delivers savings and peak reductions in the home through advisory functionality, end-to-end program management capabilities, and demand response integration. Every aspect of this new solution is designed to motivate behavioral changes and alter the way people think about and manage their home energy use: from initial setup on through daily interaction, users are nudged towards more efficient behaviors, with expected savings rates of about 15% for cooling and 10% for heating. Two-way communication allows users to control settings from anywhere via the web or mobile devices. For utilities, this solution offers a way to provide active feedback to users as well as validate load reductions at an account-specific level.