Misawa Homes Releases Household Energy Monitoring System

Copyright Misawa Homes Co.

Misawa Homes Co., a major house builder in Japan, released its Energy Monitoring System in October 2009, in cooperation with Osaki Electric Co. and other companies. The system is capable of displaying information on room-by-room energy consumption, including electricity, gas and water.

By measuring and displaying the energy consumption and operational status of home appliances, the system will help residents become more aware of energy conservation, and will eventually reduce energy consumption by encouraging them to adopt energy-saving behaviors. Survey results have shown that electricity use can be reduced by about 10 percent simply by visualizing energy consumption.

The most significant feature of this system is that it can display the energy consumption of each room, such as the living room and kitchen, thereby allowing users to see which rooms need energy-saving efforts. Furthermore, the system is compatible with leading-edge equipment, including photovoltaic systems and household fuel cells.

The functions of this system include the display of figures and graphs of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents and charges related to the consumption of electricity, gas and water, providing reminders to turn lights off and alerts indicating excess use of electricity, and evaluating target achievement levels by comparing predicted consumption based on present conditions with the actual consumption. This system sells for 225,000 yen (about U.S.$ 2,500), and the company expects to sell 1,000 systems in the first year.

Misawa Homes Group official website
http://www.misawa.co.jp/en/info/

Posted: 2009/12/23 06:00:15 AM