Looking for a convenient way to save money on your monthly utility bill? Having trouble cutting your energy use to live more environmentally friendly? Opower, the ingenious social app that integrates your energy bill and your Facebook, is fueled by friendly competition and “positive peer-pressure.” Check it out and start saving!
Opower‘s main purpose is to “engage the millions of people who are in the dark about their energy use.” By bringing the energy use into the social realm, the goal is that users will compete for the lowest energy usage in their neighborhood.
Through the use of smart meters, meters that use statistical algorithms to breakdown and analyze the forms of energy you use the most, Opower has the ability to tailor energy saving tips for your place of residence.
With Opower’s green stamp of approval from the Obama administration and it’s recent social-networking infusion, it’s easy to share, compare, and compete, with friends through Facebook to see who can be the most energy efficient.
Facebook and Opower teamed together is a great example of how intuitive technology has real-life value. This is because Facebook allows Opower to have the competitive advantage. Sharing how much you save on social-networking sites becomes the motivation for others to reduce their costs, and drive down our collective energy usage.
It seems to be working, too. Even in it’s early stages, the social energy-saving platform is boasting millions of dollars in cost savings, nearly a billion kilowatt hours saved, and billions of CO2 pounds abated. For a simple social app that builds competitive energy savings and promotes strategies for sustainable living between friends on Facebook, this is a pretty remarkable feat.
In a day and age where sustainable practice and environmental awareness is the most most important global issue, Opower is a progressive and exciting way to get involved.
Like other apps that use Facebook, getting set-up is as easy as signing-in to Facebook. When you go to Opower’s social portal, you’ll see a place to log-in using your Facebook account:
Don’t worry, you’re not giving away your Facebook password to Opower. It just gives permission for Opower to share your energy savings with your friends through Facebook.
After you have joined, you can follow 3 steps to input your home profile and your energy use information. Then invite your friends to do the same. Here is where the competition begins.
Opower will then break down the energy information you’ve entered and rank you according to the energy use of your friends. I’m currently in second place on my list, an electrifying 250 kWh behind the current leader. But under the ‘Ways to Save’ section, Opower also offers clear, informative ways that I can start saving energy right away.
Unfortunately for our region, Puget Sound Energy, the main energy provider for the greater Olympia and South Sound region, doesn’t offer the full functionality of Opower. This doesn’t mean that Opower is useless, but until Puget Sound Energy reaches full capability, we won’t be seeing all the offered features.
If this social, energy saving app really takes off, we’re on our way to saving money, reducing energy usage, and increasing our environmental awareness. Have fun saving energy!
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