BeeP Blog

The old flywheel analog utility meters that have been quietly and, for the most part, anonymously spinning their dials in our garages or sheds will soon be swapped out for solid-state, digital meters. Those shiny and somewhat elegant metal dials, wheels and machine parts that are rooted in our technology past will be replaced by, let’s face it, rather boring and colorless digital number readouts. Aesthetics, I realize, are not really the point here. What’s more important is inside the box: the ability to turn energy data into actionable information, that will soon bring about smart appliances, energy dashboards and consumer tech gadgets that will give us amusing ways to relate to our energy use and the integration of clean, renewable power sources onto the grid.  With the Smart Grid, for the first time, we will be able to understand exactly how we use energy and know how to make little tweaks to the way we use power to bring our bills down and minimize our carbon footprints. (Consumers have been shown to reduce their energy consumption by as much as 15 percent just by becoming aware of how they’re using energy.)

I’m truly excited about the endless possibilities of the Smart Grid, but I can’t help but feel a little wistful as we move full steam ahead into the future. Someday, people won’t even remember what these old, dusty and paint-spattered meters looked like. They’ll pass into obscurity with the other relics of the late 20th century, like rotary phones, fat TVs, VCRs, tapes and Polaroid cameras. So just for the record, I snapped a few pictures of old meters in my neighborhood this morning. My home utility, PG&E, is in the process of rolling out digital GE meters, and there were already some out there, but here, for your viewing pleasure, is my ode to the flywheel meter.