Microsoft Hohm Lets Users Compare Energy Use with Neighbors

Published May 28, 2010

REDMOND, WA — The Hohm website, Microsoft's home energy management application, now provides users with energy efficiency scores for their properties that can be compared with scores for neighbors and households elsewhere in the country.

Microsoft announced the new function of its free program this week and said it can provide scores for 60 million homes in the U.S. Working with real estate data, the tool operates using advanced analytics licensed from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and statistical data from the Department of Energy.

Hohm, launched last June, is Microsoft's bid to join the array of offerings that enable home owners to gauge their energy use with the help of dashboards and other tools -- and ultimately reduce consumption.

Increasingly, such tools are providing users with ways to compare their use against that of others, which can be an effective motivator for changing behavior.

Users can get their Hohm Score by going to www.microsoft-hohm.com and typing in their address. Energy efficiency scores range from 1 to 100 with 100 being ideal. The national average is 61. The chart from Microsoft below shows state averages -- Hawaii has the highest and Texas, the lowest.

The tool provides a score for estimated energy efficiency for the address entered, the average for the zip code, estimated potential savings in energy costs and a breakdown of estimated current consumption.

Microsoft envisions its Hohm website as a pathway for users to eventually tap into the smart grid. Although the scoring program is now widely available, only residents in some parts of Washington, California and the Midwest can currently hook up Hohm to their utilities to provide more accurate information.

"The Hohm Score is the first step in helping us all make smarter decisions about our home energy use," Troy Batterberry, product unit manager of Microsoft Hohm, said in statement. "If each of the 60 million households improved their Hohm Score by five points, collectively that would equal an estimated $8 billion in savings a year."

Image CC licensed by Flickr user lunchtimemama

I'm sic ! I need your

MARIO KEKIC (not verified), June 3, 2010 - 11:03

I'm sic ! I need your hellicopter ! URGENT !

Microsoft? Haha. Think about

Anonymous (not verified), June 1, 2010 - 11:39

Microsoft? Haha.

Think about how much electricity was used just to program the software, or create the CD's or boxes etc.

God this green stuff is hypocritical.

Microsoft is global and yet my little light bulb is going to be the end of the world.

Give me a break.

You'd have to be blind not to

Anonymous (not verified), June 1, 2010 - 02:06

You'd have to be blind not to see where they're going with this: once they can point to sufficient 'participation' to claim 'general acceptance', the next step will logically be to force people to comply with random energy rationing - presumably to 'save Earth' and, of course, to avoid the hefty fines and yet unheard of other draconic sanctions that are the centerpiece of the psychopaths' wet dreams of totalitarian manipulation and control.

I recommend your readers try

Anonymous (not verified), May 28, 2010 - 14:30

I recommend your readers try the one from Philips Lighting as it works great and does the same thing. Here's the link: http://www.asimpleswitch.com

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Microsoft Hohm Lets Users Compare Energy Use with Neighbors