Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/06/25/twitter_home_man/
Man hooks home into Twitter
World's first self-Tweeting home?
Posted in Personal Tech, 25th June 2009 14:13 GMT
A computer engineer has connected his home to social networking service Twitter, enabling it to Tweet him with updates about his residence’s electricity and water consumption.
Andy Stanford-Clark, 43, has fitted wireless sensors onto household items scattered around his 16th Century thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight, according to various online reports.
The sensors feed information to a central hub that, with the help of some specially written software, translates into words a sensor notification that, say, the bathroom heater has been turned on.
As a result, Stanford-Clark then receives a “bathroom heater turned on” Twitter message through his mobile phone.
The fellow’s aim is to help his family become more eco-friendly by reducing their energy consumption at home. But it’s not clear exactly how a Twitter notification that his bathroom heater’s just been turned on helps Stanford-Clark reduce energy use.
Perhaps he then drives home to switch the heater off...
Nonetheless, Stanford-Clark reportedly claimed to have already cut his electricity consumption by one third since installing his Twitter technology. ®