GE’s home energy monitoring technology, Nucleus, enjoyed a successful debut at CES this year and is currently in use in six test markets in the U.S. A white cube the size of your typical gadget’s power adapter, Nucleus plugs into your electrical outlet and offers a new window into exactly how much energy, and at what cost, the appliances in your home are using. The goal, of course, is that you’ll start assessing and optimizing energy efficiency in your home, and make smarter choices about usage.
But does it have the power to connect with people, and change behaviors, on a large scale? We spoke with an expert in human behavior — behavioral economist Dan Ariely, professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and best-selling author of The Upside of Irrationality — on how consumers can use Nucleus to maximize both their desire and ability to save energy — and cash.
According to Ariely (who recently gave us his insights on consumers and electric vehicles), there are two major impacts technologies like Nucleus can have. The first is the so-called ‘Learning Effect’ — teaching us the link between what we do at home and how it affects our wallets. “Right now, we don’t understand the relationship between the actions we take and the consequences they have on our electrical bills,” Ariely says.
The beauty of the Nucleus is that it offers a “dollars” display — there’s a toggle switch between kilowatts used and dollar amounts spent. “If you ask people how much each component of energy costs, it’s very difficult to figure out,’ Ariely notes. “With [Nucleus], people can figure out what action causes what cost– you stand next to this device and turn things on and off, and see what the actual consequences are.”
The second, and even larger, impact is known as the “Agony of Payment” — the idea that if you pay in real time as you consume, you experience less pleasure from the consumption.
“Consider this analogy,” says Ariely. “Imagine what would happen if you went to a restaurant, and they charged you per bite — it would be a cheap meal, but very unpleasant, since every bite you’d take, you’d ask, ‘Is this worth it?’”
With a monitor like the Nucleus, consumers can draw direct connections between consumption and costs, and assess the “pain” of those costs — if you keep the bathroom light on all night, there will be a clear and visible hit to your bank account. “Think about the old system in England, where you put coins in a box and only then did the heat turn on — imagine what the temperature would be in your house if this was still the system,” Ariely says.
Granted, certain steps will make Nucleus more useful — such as prominent placement of the screen in the house. “It’s important where it would be located,” Ariely says. “In order to maximize these two effects, Nucleus needs to be in plain sight where people can react to it — if it’s installed in the garage, the effects are lessened.”
No surprise, one of the biggest impacts, Ariely notes, could come from competition — learning how much energy your neighbors are using, and comparing it to your own use. Fortunately, future versions of Nucleus will let us do just that, by comparing our households to others if we chose. After all, even sweeter than the saving of cash is the knowledge that you’ve saved more than your neighbor.
Real time: Nucleus is basically a home energy command center that delivers real-time energy usage consumption data to PCs and smart phones and serves as the hub of conversations taking place between smart meters and smart appliances.
Ups and downs: Nucleus updates the data displayed every 15 seconds.
* Learn more about Nucleus and the home energy management technologies
* Learn more about how Nucleus works with utilities
* Read “Solar ‘smart’ homes aim to slash energy use by 70%” on GE Reports
* Read our CES coverage about home energy management technologies
