Your new Android may be able to automatically encrypt data. But could it also help show energy usage and wastage? In short: yes!
Powershop has been New Zealand’s powerful energy monitoring tool since 2009. In fact, even today it is one of New Zealand’s only power companies dedicated to helping it’s customers use less electricity. Powershop was also the first to sell carbon offset energy through it’s online shop!
Now it has positioned itself as the world’s only mobile power company. CEO Ari Sargent believes smartphones can be fantastic tools for households who want to reduce their energy footprint. He told NZ Herald,
“Mobile makes viewing and understanding energy consumption radically simpler, easier to understand and, importantly, more fun. It gives you an incentive to really understand where you’re using or wasting the most power, which leads to lower usage.”
Powershop’s mobile app is basically a power tracker. Have you recently bought a heat pump from Hamilton? This app allows you to track when it was turned off or left on. Did someone in your house receive a gaming console for Christmas? This app can alert you if your console was used maybe a bit too heavily.
The app also gives some pretty interesting insight. Concious consumer Max Dermann found turning his heat pumps down at night used no more power than switching them off and powering them up again in the morning.
Mr Dermann said, “It just takes a few seconds to open the app and all the information is there. It’s like checking the weather or your bank account. Mobile is the perfect platform to make you more aware of how much energy you’re using.”
Mr Dermann isn’t the only mobile enthusiast. “Mobile makes it real. If you can literally see the difference between switching lights off or leaving them on, you’re far more likely to change your habits and behaviour,” Mr Sargent says.