Tweet, Tweet, What did I heat?

Does anyone recall the old Twilight Zone episode when a grouchy guy’s appliances were finally fed up enough to “get him”? Tired of getting kicked and beaten up, the mixer, the television, an electric razor … all conspired to drive him to madness while the typewriter (yes!) tapped out a final warning.

I guess they all had telepathy of some sort, but today, they could simply have tweeted that “it’s time”. At least if they were in Germany.

That’s where Yello Strom, one of Germany’s largest energy companies, has enabled its meters to tweet usage data. They appear to be the first utility to offer this service as a part of their smart meters. Each “Yello Sparzahler” (smart meter) gets its very own Twitter account that regularly updates the household mortals on energy use. Propriety software allows a thorough analysis of personal power usage, showing how much energy is used by every appliance in your home.

IDEO designed the meter and peripherals to be friendly and to transmit easily accessible data so that consumers would actually enjoy monitoring their energy consumption. Assuming that a tweet every time you open the refrigerator or turn on your computer won’t drive you to madness … warning to our German friends … be nice to the TV!