Energy saving ideas by young UW professor

New ideas, inventions and a start-up company... at age 29... University of Washington Asst. Prof. Shwetak Patel...


Seattle Times


At Georgia Tech, Patel was researching how to monitor the health and safety of elderly people living at home. Realizing that wiring a home with cameras was too expensive and invasive, Patel came up with a unique solution.

He figured out how to disaggregate the "voltage noise" of a home's electrical system to determine if specific devices or light bulbs were on. Each device, when turned on, sings a specific electric tune, and Patel developed algorithms to be sensitive ears.

Instead of a home festooned with cameras to monitor Grandma, Patel developed a single sensor that plugs into an outlet, and decided the technology could be applied to home-energy conservation as well.
Instead of a once-every-two-month lump statement of energy consumption, Patel's sensor gives a homeowner "a readout that tells you exactly what's going on with each device, each light bulb, and so the feedback can make you smarter about your usage," said Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates professor in the computer-science department. "The goal is to make it so dirt simple that any consumer can use it."

After Patel and his wife, Julie Kientz, also a UW professor, were hired in 2008, Patel applied the same concepts to water usage — with a diagram detecting the sonic resonance of each faucet — and natural gas. He also has worked with insurers to develop a moisture and carbon-monoxide sensor, using a home's electrical wiring as an antennae, to reduce power consumption.

"[Patel] is just unbelievably creative," Lazowska said. "He thinks about this stuff a mile a minute. And he's totally the nicest guy in the world."