7 Green Home Tech Trends of 2011

Weird year: 2011 was supposed to be the breakthrough year for home energy management, at least according to this GreenTech Advocates guy. That didn’t quite happen, but there was a lot of progress. Just not exactly the kind we anticipated. There was bad news, too. Google and Microsoft left the energy monitoring party, and many thought that was pretty much the apocalypse for energy management in the home. Didn’t quite turn out that way, and the two giants may well have opened the market for smaller, more nimble players. Here are the top trends of the year: People Want Energy Efficiency Being energy efficient is no longer about being green. It’s about saving money, eliminating waste—and maybe doing the right thing. That’s pretty cool. Though studies show that while most are more receptive to being energy efficient, they either don’t follow through or have wrong ideas about how to save energy. Conclusion: More education—much more education—is needed. And that’s not such a bad thing. Here Come the Service Providers ADT, Comcast, Verizon, Vivint, and Alarm.com have rolled out basic energy management systems with wireless thermostats and lighting control—operable from your smartphone. Verizon even has a package with an energy monitor […]