British Gas and AlertMe announce smart home energy trials

Remotely control your home's heating

British Gas and AlertMe.com announce smart home trials

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20 July 2009 17:27 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

British Gas and AlertMe.com, a company that provides energy saving systems for homes, have announced an agreement that will see the two companies trial home energy management technologies with the aim to help British Gas customers "cut their energy consumption, save money and reduce their household carbon emission".

The energy-saving tech from AlertMe.com, based on its Smart Home platform, comes in the form of a broadband-connected "energy kit" that constantly measures and controls individual appliances within the home as well as measuring temperature in different parts of the house and managing the home’s overall energy usage.

The home-owner can then view this information remotely, either online or via their mobile phone, and change the system's settings with options for functions like turning on heating. As users are on their way home they can turn appliances on or off via SmartPlugs wired into the Smart Home system.

In addition, the "intelligent monitoring system" automatically optimises consumption and can automatically reduce energy costs by turning off the heating when the house is empty or turning off appliances left on standby.

Depending on the results of automated heating control system trial, the service could be made available to British Gas customers by the end of 2009.