Keen techno watchers cannot fail to have noticed the glut of new home management products, from displays and web-based dashboards to apps for smart phones for control in the home and on the move. Yes, the era of the home area network (HAN) is upon us and energy management, facilitated by AMI, must be a key element of this.

With this in mind this issue has a strong focus on home energy management, highlighting among other issues the important role of feedback to customers on their energy use in achieving savings and some of the ways that this feedback can most effectively be presented. Key is that feedback doesn’t have to be “boring” and that there are “fun” ways of presenting information that engage consumers, at least on the relatively short term scale of months to a few years.