Bell leading the way on home energy conservation

Easy-to-use solution helps conserve energy, and curbs energy consumption during peak periods

Canada is facing a significant energy challenge and conserving energy has never been more important. Brownouts, expensive out-of-province electricity purchases and using environmentally damaging coal-fire plants are not attractive options for energy providers in addressing the challenge.

The Home Energy Conservation solution from Bell has generated considerable attention among providers as a way of making it easy for consumers to save energy. By reducing the energy consumption in Canadian homes, this solution holds enormous ecological potential.

Electrical load controller devices — such as specially made light switches and outlets - are installed in a home, and then communicate with a Bell home gateway computer, using the home electrical wiring as the network. A load controller is typically used for heavy appliance loads in the home, such as water heaters or pumps. Using a powerful and easy-to-use interface, the homeowner can control the behaviour of any of the connected load controllers and appliances.

This simple-to-use interactive energy conservation interface from Bell allows homeowners to make smart energy decisions, creating energy-saving scheduling profiles in just a few clicks. The system will then measure and let the homeowners know how well they are doing, and how much money they have saved.

Many homes already have centralized, programmable thermostats that can be set to change the temperature when people return home from work, or when they go to sleep at night. Using the Home Energy Conservation solution from Bell, the same concept can now be applied to hot water heaters, window mounted air conditioners, pool and spa pumps, outdoor lights, and any other device that consumes energy.

“There’s no reason why they need to be running full blast during the dinnertime peak energy crunch,” explained Peter Bissegger of the Solutions Development team at Bell, noting that the solution improves usage efficiency without any negative impacts on people's lifestyles. “By scheduling these appliances to operate just before dinnertime, they can be turned off for a short period of time during the expensive peak period, with no impact to the homeowner — except for some nice savings on their electric bill.”

Depending on numerous factors such as hours of work and vacation, consumers can choose when and how they wish to regulate their energy utilization for each individual appliance or device. Added Bissegger: “We're giving people the ability to be proactive in saving energy, while offering them choices. It's a win-win for the environment, consumers and hydro companies.”

To demonstrate the solution's potential, Bell is conducting a pilot project in Milton, Ontario, in partnership with Milton Hydro and Mattamy Homes — a local homebuilder. Two hundred and fifty houses are being retrofitted with the Home Energy Conservation solution, and will be compared to 70 houses that are not equipped with it. Accurate measurements of energy use in all homes will be logged, and energy habits and behaviours will be measured for a full year by the University of Waterloo. “At the end, we will be able to see detailed energy consumption data for each home,” said Bissegger. “We'll see not just how much energy has been saved, but also how much money homeowners will save with this solution.”

To find out more about how the Home Energy Conservation solution from Bell, contact your Bell representative.