Business

27 Feb 08

The Geni-e gives a breakdown of your energy use on your PC.

An Oxford University spin-out company, due to launch later this year, is already winning praise for its smart meter technology from Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

In today’s speech at Imperial College London George Osborne MP gives Intelligent Sustainable Energy as an example of the kind of green technology companies needed to help tackle climate change.

Intelligent Sustainable Energy (ISE) has developed an innovative electricity metering and monitoring device – the Geni-e meter – and is planning to spin-out from Isis Innovation, the technology transfer arm for Oxford University. The company’s founders include Dr Malcolm McCulloch, Head of the Electrical Power Group at Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, and chartered engineer Jim Donaldson.

While so-called ‘smart meters’ are currently available these only measure total electricity consumption in half-hourly periods, making it difficult to see exactly where energy savings could be made. The Geni-e meter, by contrast, can accurately identify the amount of energy being used by types of appliance – or even individual appliances – such as cookers or immersion heaters. By delivering this kind of detailed energy-use breakdown to home PCs and handheld devices it can help householders to spot malfunctioning or energy-guzzling devices and enable them to both reduce their carbon footprint and save money.

The work is the subject of a patent application and companies interested in commercialising the technology should contact Isis Innovation.