FutureDash, a business-to-business (B2B) software company, has launched GreenDash, a new software product that allows manufacturers of consumer networking and electronics equipment to add energy monitoring capabilities to their products, helping homeowners reduce their electricity bills.
With GreenDash, users are presented with an instant view of home energy consumption, which will allow them to cut energy usage and reduce electricity bills and lower carbon footprint. This information is available in real time – at home, away or abroad – on a dashboard-style graphical user interface (GUI).
By giving users a virtual in-home display (IHD), GreenDash homeowners tap into the smart grid to monitor and manage their current electricity consumption in real-time and view their usage. This can be done on a web browser or other compatible client hardware such as a smartphone, PDA, notebook, connected TV or set-top box.
The GreenDash server acts as an energy monitoring hub, collecting data in real-time from the smart meter and other compatible smart energy devices around the home area network (HAN), then relaying it in real-time to dashboard clients via the user’s home network or the internet, FutureDash said.
Hardware OEMs and manufacturers of consumer electronics, networking and broadband residential gateway devices can bundle GreenDash server software to add energy monitoring capabilities to their current or planned product lines, without the overhead of in-house software development. Compatible server devices include routers, gateways, network attached storage (NAS), media servers, IPTVs and set-top boxes. Such hardware, once enabled with the GreenDash server, will then allow a broadband services provider or utility company to offer energy monitoring products and services to their customers.
Allan Hundhausen, founder and president of FutureDash, said: “Increased energy awareness leads to increased energy conservation, and our GreenDash software enables existing devices to be turned into a home energy monitoring system so everyone wins – both the consumers and the utility companies. Multiple independent studies have proven that in-home access to the right tools enhances energy awareness and leads to direct financial savings that can typically range from at least 5% to greater than 15% per home.”