Today in Cleantech
I hate to say I told you so, but… it looks like the proprietary, low-power wireless technology called Z-Wave is making headway against its standard-based rival, ZigBee, in the home energy automation front, as I predicted last month. Over at Earth2Tech, Katie Fehrenbacher confirms with Verizon that its new home energy management and automation pilot project in New Jersey will indeed be based on Z-Wave technology. Why not ZigBee, the standards-based technology that’s being embedded in almost all the smart meters being deployed in North America for eventual connection to home energy networks? Verizon says that Z-Wave products are more readily available than ZigBee products, with about 250 Z-Wave enabled devices for all manner of home automation purposes, compared to the far more energy-specific list of 100 or so ZigBee devices. Verizon’s partnership with home automation company 4Home, a Z-Wave Alliance member and recent Motorola acquisition, also plays a role. Verizon is even using Z-Wave instead of ZigBee for its circuit-clamp style power meter device to beam energy usage information to a home interface. Of course, Verizon isn’t ruling out ZigBee or other networking technologies in the future. The race between contenders including Wi-Fi, HomePlug, cellular or other proprietary technologies is still pretty wide open as far as I can tell — what do you think?
