Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Microsoft Takes Page From Zillow, Pinpoints Home Energy Score

Redmond-based Microsoft has taken a page from Zillow, and said that it is now offering up individualized energy ratings for over 60 million homes in the United States. The firm said that its Microsoft Hohm online home energy management tool now presents a "Hohm Score", which estimates energy efficiency of a home. The tool--tied to a drag and drop satellite map from Bing and data from the Department of Energy and analytics from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs--uses information about individual addresses to calculate the "Hohm Score". Microsoft also allows users to hone those results and add information about their own homes to the service.