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Microsoft debuts Hohm Score; guilts you into energy efficiency

By | May 26, 2010, 12:18 PM PDT

What’s your Hohm Score?”

That’s what Microsoft is hoping some 60 million American homeowners will be asking their neighbors after debuting its new home energy efficiency metric on Wednesday.

The score is a part of the company’s free online home energy management tool of the same name.

According to Microsoft, the average Hohm Score in the U.S. — 61 — is failing.

The most efficient states are the following:

  • Hawaii (81)
  • Delaware (70)
  • Maryland (70)
  • District of Columbia (68)
  • New Jersey (67)

The most deficient (ahem) states are the following:

  • Arkansas (53)
  • Oklahoma (52)
  • Nevada (51)
  • Tennessee (51)
  • Texas (51)

That’s right: the best state in the union only managed a B- on its energy efficiency test, and the fourth and fifth best each achieved D+.

The score is calculated by comparing a home’s actual and potential energy efficiency using analytics licensed from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and statistical data from the Department of Energy.

Hohm Scores are available by individual homes, ZIP code, city and state so you can compare yourself with your locale of choice.

“The Hohm Score is the first step in helping us all make smarter decisions about our home energy use,” Hohm project manager Troy Batterberry said in a statement. “If each of the 60 million households improved their Hohm Score by five points, collectively that would equal an estimated $8 billion in savings a year.”

See the image above to see the Hohm Score for a certain famous resident of Los Angeles, Calif. (Here’s a hint: It’s always swinging at his house.)

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Andrew Nusca

About Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca is editor of SmartPlanet.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew Nusca is editor of SmartPlanet and an associate editor for ZDNet. Previously, he worked at Money, Men's Vogue and Popular Mechanics magazines. He holds degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and New York University. He based in New York but resides in Philadelphia.

Follow him on Twitter.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew Nusca
Andrew Nusca does not hold any investments in the companies he covers.
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RE: Microsoft debuts Hohm Score; guilts you into energy efficiency
and they said it could not be done. a software that is guaranteed to make you feel badly about your life. it would have been just as easy to write the software to make you feel like a winner. what is the point of either?
Posted by stilt21
27th May 2010
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RE: Microsoft debuts Hohm Score; guilts you into energy efficiency
Software is worthless. It makes no mention of solar anything. It makes no mention of metal roofing.
Posted by blueskip
28th May 2010
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