Jeff St. John 10 06 09, 11:05 AM

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The Energy Detective, Now With Google’s PowerMeter

Google wants to make The Energy Detective an alternative to the digital meter reader.

Google has named TED as its first outside-the-smart-meter device partner for PowerMeter, the free home energy dashboard Google is developing.

Made by Charleston, S.C.-based Energy Inc., the TED 5000 is installed by an electrician and can read power loads throughout the home, then use ZigBee to beam them to computers, mobile devices and displays.

All that functionality does cost a bit of money – the TED 5000 starts at $200 and goes up with additional features, like a system to monitor home solar panel power output.

That may put it outside the price range most Americans are willing to pay to track their home energy use, according to surveys on the topic (see $48: A Threshhold Price for In-Home Energy Management?).

That's why Google is working with smart meter maker Itron and about a dozen utilities to integrate smart meter data into its displays.

Still, despite the speeding pace of smart meter deployments, there will still be more homes without them than with them for years to come (see 8.3M Smart Meters and Counting in U.S.). Google has said from the beginning that it would seek alternatives to smart meters.

TED has been on the short list of rumored PowerMeter partners for some time, but Google has said it is working with several others and looking for more (see Google Looks Beyond Smart Meters for Home Energy Data).

Any home energy management startup that can land a Google PowerMeter partnership is likely to get a boost in the small market of early adopters willing to spend big bucks to have the first energy-smart home on their block. Stay tuned for more announcements in advance of the holiday shopping season.