An innovative way to cut energy costs!

Reliant Energy, a reseller of electricity, has set up a high-tech device, called Insight, in the home of their 1.8 million customers. Insight lets individuals track information about the cost of the electricity they are consuming. This device wirelessly communicates to a home’s utility meter to measure things such as how much per hour electricity is costing, or the total cost of electricity bill so far, and how much it will be at the end of the month if consumers keep using the electricity at a consistent rate. Insight will also warn consumers how much the bill will increase if they crank up the heat or air conditioning! By setting up Insight in Reliant Energy’s customers’ home, the company is able to offer fixed monthly electricity prices if the homeowner keeps the temperature the same all month. (For example, if a consumer set their thermostat at 72 degrees and keeps it there the whole month, Reliant Energy will only charge them $200.) Reliant Energy also suggests the best time to use household appliances or other utilities to cut consumer costs. For instance, they found out a way for people to save money by doing their laundry at 8pm instead of 3pm! The company hopes to not only gain more business, but also encourage customers to cut back on their use of electricity.
I believe this innovation is great. It helps homeowners limit their cost, and people be more conscious about the resources they use. This in the long-run can be very beneficial many people. Homeowners often do not look at way to cut their utility costs, or think far into how they can conserve their energy uses. Being more aware of how much energy you are consuming, and realizing that that amount of consumption comes at a cost will help alter people’s consumer behaviors. If a person is aware of the monetary cost for keeping the lights on while they are not in the room, they are more inclined to be more conscious of flicking the switch when the lights are no longer needed.
Mark Jacob’s, the CEO of Reliant Energy believes that “nothing influences behavior better than knowing the true price of what you’re buying.” I agree with this statement because when people are conscious of how much they are spending, and they know ways to reduce costs, they are going to be prone to do so. Moreover, if they know that their actions comes with a consequence, (in this case it is monetary, and environmental,) they are more inclined to change their behaviors.
Most of all , I believe that this innovation has come at a great time. Many people have growing concerns regarding the economy, the environment, and families’ shrinking income. This product can directly and indirectly help issues regarding those three topics. For example, individuals, homeowners, and businesses may be inclined to cut costs in any way possible, due to the down turning markets. An individual benefits from reducing their use of energy because it will promote their economic security, a business stands to benefit from energy conservation because it will increase their efficiency and maximize profits. Moreover, Wikipedia suggests that energy conservation can result in an “increase of financial capital, environmental value, national security, personal security, and human comfort.” Additionally, one stands to alleviate economic problems by reducing energy consumption because they are inevitably reducing energy demand, which can lead to the reduction of energy imports as well as the need for new power plants. This will help the efficiency of choosing the best way to produce energy and eliminate energy shortage. Energy conservation has multiple benefits to the environment. By conserving energy, one is reducing emission, which can lead to reduced climate changes and our rapid approach to seeing the effects of global warming. Moreover, there are increasing amounts of studies that are linking the environmental issues to cancer and other medical problems. By taking smalls steps such as these to be more environmentally conscious, current and future generation stand to benefit.
Insight has both a information component as well as a technology component. The technology is being able to calculate the different variables of cost for users, and information component is that the product can inform users on their energy usage. This data can be used to make information knowledge. By knowing that your energy consumption is costing you so and so dollars per hour, per month, etc, you can use this information to tweak your usage how you see fit. This technology can stand to make many changes in people and business’ lifestyle. Lastly, I am confident that Insight has the innovative power and opportunity to be very successful.