Sensus and 4Home Look Toward Home Area Networking

Fresh off winning an award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, in-home power control software developer 4Home Inc. has landed a deal to license its technology to smart meter maker Sensus Metering Systems.

The two companies announced Thursday that they’ll be working together to provide utilities with smart grid-enabled home area networking and demand response “solutions” — that is, systems that can track power usage from thermostats, appliances and electronic devices and communicate that information through a smart meter to utilities and consumers.

One of those solutions might well be 4Home Energy, the system for measuring and displaying a home’s power usage that Sensus has licensed. A version of 4Home Energy, controlled by 4Home’s software and using devices and technology from smart meter maker Echelon, SMC Networks and Radio Thermostat Corporation of America, just won an award from CES for being a top innovator in eco-design and sustainability. 

Sensus will presumably be looking to use 4Home’s software capabilities in its own home area network trials with utilities. The North Carolina-based company has deals to supply millions of meters to more than 100 customers, including Portland General Electric, Southern Co., Alliant Energy, and most recently Hawaiian Electric Co.  

The Sensus and 4Home deal is one of a number of partnerships seeking to deliver on the promise of getting homeowners in closer touch with utilities about how much power they’re using — or wasting.

Silver Spring Networks, a smart meter wireless communications startup that landed $75 million in October, joined up with home power display developer Greenbox earlier this year to give customers of Oklahoma Gas and Electric the ability to track their power usage in a test of their technology. 

And Gridpoint, which makes software to track and control home power usage and raised $120 million in September, is joining advanced metering and demand response hardware and software maker SmartSynch and other partners in Xcel Energy’s $100 million SmartGridCity initiative in Boulder, Colo. 

4Home, by the way, is a member of the Z-Wave Alliance, a group promoting the use of the Z-Wave communication standard developed by Zensys, which was purchased by Sigma Designs last month. But the standard hasn’t really caught on with utilities for low-power wireless communication within the home.

Instead, many of the utilities planning trials of home area networks — including California’s big three investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — are planning to use the rival ZigBee communication standard instead. 

Tendril Networks, which makes ZigBee-enabled devices and software to give homeowners power use information, said in November that it has trials going with 29 utilities, one of which is expected to start a commercial rollout this year.