Everyone is talking about energy efficiency, and rationalizing energy consumption, about demand side management programs and so on... but how can you rationalize your energy consumption if you don't know how and when you consume energy? how can we talk about energy efficiency measures when all we know about our energy consumption is a number on the meter at the end of the month?

A few clever engineers came up with the solution and created the "OpenEnergyMonitor" initiative, which consists on an open source system (hardware and software) that is affordable and simple to build.

The system is based on the very popular platform Arduino (open source hardware), and on some pieces of software done by the "OpenEnergyMonitor" community. Anyone can visit the website, download a list of the components and the plans, buy them, assemble them, download the software, and tadaaaaa!!! Your own Energy Monitor is operational.

It is possible to monitor many generators/consumers of electricity, natural gas, water consumption, and some other parameters like temperature, luminosity, humidity, wind speed.. etc.

My idea is put all these bits of hardware and software together, create a plug-and-play system, and give all these people and organizations that don't have the time or the skills to build their monitor, access to monitoring their energy consumption patterns, and work on optimizing them.

In order to start this business, I need funds, and luckily, there are organizations like the Zurich Hub (http://www.hubzurich.org/) that offer entrepreneurs a fellowship that allows them to develop their ideas.

I am applying to that fellowship, and I need to build a prototype of an energy monitor to convince the jury of my idea, for that I need your help to raise 120 Euros and buy the components.

Kirikou: an open source electricity monitor

Kirikou: an open source electricity monitor