Coracle System
Coracle is designed for any household that wants to understand more about their energy use and its costs. It can spot major appliances working and the constant background energy used by such things as standby lights. The information Coracle provides helps householders identify appliances that are expensive to run, budget their energy usage and pick up possible problems with their stuff.
Here we are showing an extremely simplified example of Coracle in action in a typical family house.
- During the day, while everyone is out, the house is consuming little electricity:
- It's 6.30 pm and everyone has come home for dinner. Mum and dad have turned the oven and dishwasher on while the kids are watching television. A load of washing has gone into the dryer. All this activity means the power required for the house increases dramatically.
- This increase in electricity use is being picked up by the the electricity meter (and any other clamp-on sensor), ready to send out the information to the utility company for billing. Using Coracle's unique software it stores and analyses the pattern of energy use to work out what has been turned on and how much it is costing the family.
- After a short while, the results of the analysis are sent to an energy display in the kitchen where the family can clearly see what has been running and its energy consumption. The lighting and TV are grouped together, while the dryer, dishwasher and oven are listed separately. Dad can see what the quick clean in the dishwasher has cost, and decides that tomorrow he will save running the dishwasher until after dinner, when it is full.
If they choose, the family could have had the information in any number of different formats: on a personal website, via SMS, through their set top box or as a paper report. They have already moved to a tariff that saves them money if they keep their consumption down in the evenings, and are considering signing up for weekly energy saving tips, via email, from their supplier.
