Earth2Tech has a look at some applications that let iPad users visualise energy usage within their homes - More Energy Management Apps for the iPad.

Visible Energy’s iPad app is a tweak of its iPhone app, which is connected to the Energy UFO product that the company launched at our Green:Net conference in 2009 (Green:Net 2010 will take place on April 29). The Energy UFO product includes smart outlets that can be controlled wirelessly over a home network and the application (as well as the web site) displays energy usage and provides remote control and programming capabilities. Visible Energy says the iPad version will be available “shortly” (the iPhone app can also be used over the iPad).

The iPad could ultimately be disruptive in the home energy market, because if consumers embrace it as a popular “fourth screen” in the home, it could both displace the need for separate energy gadgets, and could also give a boost the home energy management market. The home energy market is a nascent ecosystem that’s made up of: utilities that are trying get their customers to consume less energy, startups building smart energy software and energy dashboards that will manage energy data in the home and help customers consume less, large manufacturers dabbling in connected appliances, and investors looking for ways to make money.

If you’re never heard of the market, it’s because from a consumer perspective it really doesn’t exist yet. According to Texas-based consultants KEMA, 68 percent of Americans haven’t heard of the smart grid, and exuberance in the home energy market “should be tempered to account for the challenge of engaging large numbers of residential customers.”

The early stage is one reason why the iPad could be disruptive. Visible Energy CEO Marco Graziano, told me earlier this month:

I never thought specialized displays were a good idea for monitoring energy consumption. They don’t have any sex appeal and are too expensive anyway as freebies for utilities to give away. We found that interactivity is really a plus when it gets to visualizing energy consumption and to engaging people in energy awareness. In this respect the iPad is a breakthrough.

Visible Energy is the second home energy management iPad app coming to market — Control4 launched a free iPad app during the hullabaloo of the iPad launch weekend. At the time, Glen Mella, the President and COO of Control4 told me in an interview: “We’re excited to embrace the iPad as another way to bring home automation and home energy management to the mainstream.”

One piece of video I like to refer people to from time to time is Hans Rosling's TED talk from a few years ago, which looks at population dynamics and shows the downward trend in growth rates dramatically using some great visualisation techniques.

Since then, Hans has done a series of online talks that he calls "Gapcasts", the latest of which is on energy.

All humans emit carbon dioxide (Co2) and contribute to the climate crises. But some humans emits much more than others. Although the total Co2-emission from China are almost as big as those from United States, the emission from a single American is more than 6 times those from a person in China.

In China today, almost 80% of the electricity are produced from coal, and that proportion is increasing. What China needs is an environmental friendly way of producing electricity that is cheaper than coal.

The software Hans used to produce the graphics in the video is called "Trendalyzer", produced by an organisation named "GapMinder", hence the site name for the Gapcasts.

GapMinder is looking to enable the production of more time series based data visualisations, and is looking to expand the available data sets via an initiative called "Gapminder Graphs".

As a first step towards a solution that will allow anyone create own “Gapminder-graphs” with their own data, Gapminder are now starting a cooperation with a number of organizations and institutions that have data sets for relevant indicators that they want to share with the world and show in a Gapminder Graph of their own.

When your organization/institution becomes a member you will get an account were you can upload your own indicators and also you get an on-line graph with the indicators you choose.

The requirements for becoming a member is that your organization:

* have data that covers a certain time (the longer time series the better);
* the data concerns “Countries and territories” of the world and;
* that the indicators can be shared to other Gapminder Graphs and be downloaded by anyone.

If you belong to an organization or institution that are interested in becoming a member of Gapminder Graphs Communtiy and fullfill the three requirements above please [contact us].

Google acquired the Trendalyzer software from GapMinder last year and have since released a Google Gadget called "Google Motion Chart" which enables relatively simple time / motion charts (compared to the full GapMinder World visualisation) to be produced, as part of the Google Visualisation API.

Microsoft have also announced a "Gapminder Tool" though there are no indications as to when it will become available to end users.

The Google Motion Chart tool is integrated with Google Docs, so you can very quickly create a spreadsheet and a visualisation of the data in it without any real technical skills.

The visualisation / video can then be easily embedded in a web page as well (you can also do this directly using some Javascript if you don't want to use Google Docs).