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Why Intel Wants To Network Your Clothes Dryer

Posted by Soulskill on from the p2p-lint-sharing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Intel has shown off a working prototype of a small box that, among other things, can monitor your clothes dryer to see how much it's contributing to your power bill. The Intelligent Home Energy Management proof-of-concept device is a small box with an 11.56-inch OLED touchscreen that is designed to act as an electronic dashboard for monitoring energy use in the home. By equipping devices like home entertainment systems and clothes dryers with wireless networked power adapters, the system can actually report back the power draw for a particular power point. Leave the house, and it can make sure power-draining devices like that plasma TV are turned off. It is unlikely the device will enter production (there are apparently only four in existence), however this story about the box shows something we can expect to see in the home of tomorrow. Ultimately, it's not only about saving money, but also reducing load on the electricity grid by removing needless power use."

20 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If it could also give suggestions such as:

    "You know, if you waited 4 hours and ran this load of laundy at midnight, you'd save 30% because of the lower power rates"

    That would be pretty cool and useful! We can save a lot of money, not by buying a bunch of new electronic goods but, by simply modifying our habits with our current electric drawing devices.

    1. Re:Interesting... by Xacid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've been waiting for all the foreboding 1984-esque posts here but so far not too many. Frankly I'm glad to see some optimism here for this. People fail to realize how the whole system works. It's not like a battery that gives instant power at a certain capacity. The power companies have to be able to predict usage to a fairly accurate degree. To the best of my knowledge any power produced above what is needed isn't stored anywhere and thus is wasted. If we could optimize the grid in a way that made it more predictable and easier to lower the load on then there'd be less overall waste.

    2. Re:Interesting... by Moryath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know a way we could save at least 15% of energy usage in the USA right now:

      mandate that all appliances (DVD players, TV's, etc) had an actual, PHYSICAL POWER SWITCH rather than being electrical vampires.

      There's no reason every fucking device on the planet has to have a goddamn clock, and much less that it needs to eat more than 2 watts 24/7 just to wait for a power-on signal from some lazy fatass who can't stand up and walk 8 feet from the couch to turn it on.

    3. Re:Interesting... by amorsen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      much less that it needs to eat more than 2 watts 24/7 just to wait for a power-on signal from some lazy fatass who can't stand up and walk 8 feet from the couch to turn it on.

      That can be achieved with less than 0.1W. It's close enough to 0 for me. Mandate that instead of mandating physical switches.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
    4. Re:Interesting... by skids · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The "vampire power" thing is a bit overrated, actually. It's worth having standards for new appliances limiting their offline current draw, but the amount of energy savings to be had doesn't come anywhere near 15% of our electricity use. Not even close. Home electronics themselves only use 7ish percent of our total electricity. See here

      To the GP: yes that's the idea of the smart grid.

      And in general it is pretty pathetic that Zigbee or X25 or even out-of-band ethernet or RS232 power strips and power meters continue to be products that are only sold at a premium to professional IT/ISP departments or home automation boutiques. The meters and the power switches themselves are all dirt cheap, and the network interfaces are also really cheap to add. I mean, look at the price of 5-port ethernet switches and tr to tell yourself adding a port or radio to a deivice like this is going to be "prohibitively expensive". It just does not make sense.

      But these have always been products that cannot sell on the shelf at Home Depot. The best you can get is a dedicated lightswitch/lamp pair that uses a proprietary "protocol." As sad as that is, it's "progress" compared to several years ago when even that was not available.

      Anyway, I suppose I'm going to have to watch a slow motion trainwreck of companies trying to proprietizesmart grid initiatives in the coming decades. Sigh.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    5. Re:Interesting... by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I don't want ANY of this stuff near my electronics.

      Sure, it sounds good to be able to monitor...however, I'm afraid that it might become mandated that everyone would have to have a monitoring device, and the govt gets to tell you when you can do what, and what temp your house can be, etc.

      With the feds (and some states) poking their noses into private citizens' lives more and more...I see this as one more thing coming. Hell, sounds like one hell of a rider to attach to the cap and trade bills going through right now.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:Interesting... by The+Chemical+Crow · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How about a power strip with a switch?

    7. Re:Interesting... by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      mandate that all appliances (DVD players, TV's, etc) had an actual, PHYSICAL POWER SWITCH rather than being electrical vampires [sciencedaily.com].

      There's no reason every fucking device on the planet has to have a goddamn clock, and much less that it needs to eat more than 2 watts 24/7 just to wait for a power-on signal from some lazy fatass who can't stand up and walk 8 feet from the couch to turn it on.

      Horse shit horse shit horse shit horse shit.

      Buy a Kill-A-Watt
      Measure the actual power consumption of your devices in standby mode
      Find that they're all immeasurably close to 0

      I have a wide variety of chargers, adapters, power strips, surge protectors, AV gear, gaming systems, etc. None of them draw so much as a single watt of power when in standby mode.

      The claims that I need to buy a smart power strip to shut off my array of chargers, or that governments need to mandate that devices come with GREEN FEATURE #246187 is utter horse shit.

      You claim at least 15%.
      Show me the fucking numbers, measured from appliances in your house. I've measured my shit, and I know these claims are lies.

      You want to ACTUALLY conserve energy use?
      Fix your insulation. The vast majority of homes in the US and the world have shitty, shitty insulation.

      Beyond that, yes, I want every device to have a physical power switch. Why? Because I like having physical control over my shit.

  2. only if the government mandates it by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These will only become common if the government mandates it. I do not believe that the average end user will get enough benefit out of a device like this for them to be interested in putting the effort and money out to deploy and use these.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    1. Re:only if the government mandates it by Polo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But kill-a-watts are becoming more mainstream.

      I've had friends who would never have looked at it until they had trouble with power bills > $500.

      As devices like this appear:

      http://www.belkin.com/conserve/insight/

      that just have a money readout, it will make more sense to non-nerds.

      And hopefully one day: kids.

    2. Re:only if the government mandates it by gumbi+west · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why exactly would I want to spend, even say $200 (a very low price for a system given the cost of a kill-a-watt), for a system that might save me $10 a year on electricity and sometimes annoy me for hours on end.

    3. Re:only if the government mandates it by operagost · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OK, well now you know one: me. To your anecdotal evidence, I add mine. As a relatively new home owner, I visit a lot of DIY forums and I assure you, people everywhere are looking for ways to save on energy costs in this economy.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    4. Re:only if the government mandates it by fermion · · Score: 2, Insightful
      When I see statement like this, I often think about indoor plumbing. I can imagine the hicks saying "how day the government make me put in indoor pluming. My outhouse is good enough."

      Obviously there is little benefit of indoor plumbing, especially in the south where it seldom gets cold and the rain it not that big of impediment, and there is space. The added cost of indoor plumbing does set a huge impediment to ownership of houses, and some may choose to not have it in order to have a protection from the elements.

      So the benefits are societal. We have made a decision that we do not want to defecate in public, so we have spent huge amounts of money to make sure that happens. It is a public health issue. Likewise we are now in process of deciding that we do not want the power plant polluting our air any more than we want the neighbor pissing in the yard. It again is going to cost huge amounts of money to make this happen. Each of us managing our power consumption is going to part of that solution. A dryer is huge waste of electricity, and is going to be one of the big thing that gets managed.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  3. Is this cost effective? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This'll be a great idea if it can be built so cheaply that the money I save from using it is greater than the money I'd save by not buying it.

    Not sure I see that happening all that soon.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  4. Not sure if its worth it by rotide · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Assume for a second that they are going to start selling these systems tomorrow. What would their cost be? $100? $300? $500?

    Now, how much would you stand to save per year in reduced energy use from a device like this monitoring and potentially powering off unused devices? $50? $100?

    I'm already pretty good at keeping things off when I'm not using them so I'm skeptical that a device like this is going to save me any money after you figure in the cost of the device and the ironic cost of powering the device.

    In theory a device like this sounds good but the very people who are worried about their energy use (and would purchase a device like this) are probably the people who least need it.

  5. Clothes dryer? by elvum · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My highly advanced clothes-line technology comes with an implicit display of its power consumption - zero.

  6. Useful for some people, but... by kannibal_klown · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't see the appeal. It looks like it's over-engineering a solution to something that can be done with common sense.

    Then again, I love tech and gadgets and I guess most of that is an over-engineered solution to something or another.

    The only reason I would care about this is if I realized I left something *dangerous* on before I left for work and could turn it off remotely. I don't use a curling iron, but I know for some that would be a big deal. A stove / oven / toaster oven / etc would be dangerous as well, and while I never left one on before leaving the house I know that's a concern for some. Though I imagine only electric stoves and ovens would apply unless there was a way to electronically turn off the gas reliably.

    As for the power draw, I would just care enough about it to know in the beginning "how much does X" use via one of those little gadgets you can temporarily plug between the device and outlet. Then decide for myself if I should monitor how much I use device X.

    Personally, I'm in the mind-set of "turn if off when not in use."
    - Not watching or listening to the TV, turn it off.
    - Not in that room across the house, turn off the main light.

    I shouldn't need a device to remind me.

    1. Re:Useful for some people, but... by Steauengeglase · · Score: 2, Insightful

      While I think that idea is inevitable and even responsible, it also seems like a serious vulnerability. I don't want someone getting in and turning my washer, dryer, stove, AC on while I am away, let alone my neighbor's constantly open wrt54g with a default password of "admin".

      If we think planes crashing into buildings are scary how about massive rolling black outs at 8:01 AM every morning.

  7. Re:wired? Don't bother. by Muad'Dave · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ZigBee, which, as the article states is the key to this system, is a protocol that runs over a wireless mesh network. I use XNet ZB modules for my tinkering.

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  8. Good lord man, take responsibility for yourself! by PhreakOfTime · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You are afraid because you are a follower.

    Obviously your fear isn't well based in reality enough to motivate you to install solar power, geothermal, or wind power on your house to supply all or some of your energy needs, so there must be SOME other reason you are afraid of imaginary boogeymen. Right?

    In all honesty, nothing amuses me more than watching someone who is not taking any responsibility for their own life get upset like this. Instead of seeing the obvious solution of being self-sustaining for yourself and taking the initiative to do it, you much prefer sitting back creating nonexistent situations that will upset you.

    Oh but you will say its too expensive? Well, I guess you now have an actual number that you will sell out your 'freedom' for, which you were just speaking so highly of. Its your own compromise, so don't run around trying to blame anyone else for it.

    Oops, you were looking for someone to enable and validate your victim-hood, weren't you?