Wattbot: A website to help eco-pimp your house
If there's one thing I've learned from browsing the endless array of rooftop solar panels and Energy Star appliances, it's that sorting through the options to make your home more efficient takes a ridiculous amount of studying and frustration. It seems like you need a PhD just to determine whether your projects will ever pay for themselves. When it comes to issues this dynamic and complex, I usually prefer to let a calculator do the thinking for me. That's pretty much the idea behind Wattbot.Wattbot is a website created by green entrepreneurs Diane Loviglio and Kurt Brown to make it easier to slash your home's electric bill. The website, now being beta tested, will allow users to input detailed information about their home, showing them which energy-saving projects will be the most fruitful. From water heaters to solar panels, Wattbot helps you see a project's true cost vs. benefits over the near and longterm.
Wattbot also attempts to serve as a nexus between consumers and providers, allowing consumers to define exactly what they want, then matching them up with an appropriate local provider. Their promotional material makes sure to emphasize the fact that providers cannot influence the matching process. There's even a social networking portion of the site, which I'm assuming allows consumers to discuss what projects and providers worked for them.
I know that if I'm going to drop a bunch of money into revamping my house, I want a detailed account of how much energy it's going to save me. Especially in this economy. Hopefully, a service like Wattbot can remove some of the gueswork out of giving your house a green makeover.
[via Earth2Tech]













