There's a start-up in Arlington that is using the age-old tactic of neighborly competition to get people to lower their electricity usage. Opower is a company that has figured out a way to analyze the huge amounts of data about electricity usage and present in it to easy-to-understand reports that arrive with a customer's electricity bill. They take it one step further by telling recipients how they fare compared to one hundred hypothetical neighbors in similar-sized houses. The better households in this 'neighbor rank' get a smiley face and the very best get two smiley faces. So far, this is having a bigger impact than anyone could have anticipated.
· Who’s Saving Electricity in Your Neighborhood? [MillerMcCune]
· Opower [OfficialSite]