Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, has just acquired a new skill or skill in the language of Molière. Developed by Hello Watt, a company specializing in energy consulting, this tool allows you to monitor your electricity and gas consumption at home.
To avoid possible power cuts in this period of energy crisis, the government has been inviting the French for several months to actively monitor their energy consumption. To assist them in this task, many free tools have emerged, such as TrackMyWatt for example.
This is a new portal developed by Guillaume Rozier, the father of CovidTracker and ViteMaDose. Among the other tools available, we should also mention EcoWatt, a platform launched by the RTE, the manager of the electricity transmission network. In another aim, Arcep announced in early January 2023 the launch of a protocol to measure the electricity consumption of your internet box, Wi-Fi repeaters and TV decoders.
Measuring your electricity consumption with Alexa is now possible
Of course, there are also third-party solutions on the market. Hello Watt, a company specializing in energy consulting, has just developed a tool for Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. This new free skill allows each individual equipped with a Linky (and Gazpar) meter to:
- monitor your electricity and gas consumption on a daily and monthly basis, in kWh, in euros and in CO2
- analyze its consumption by use (heating, hot water, etc.), an analysis based on Hello Watt research & development
According to Amazon, this Hello Watt widget is available on the Echo 8, 10 and 15. To know its electricity and gas consumption, it will suffice to pronounce the following commands: “Alexa, launch Hello Watt” Where “Give me my electricity/gas consumption”. Note, however, that it is currently impossible to obtain its consumption in real time with this skill Hello Watt.
Anyway, this is a significant novelty for Alexa, especially when we know that its development will be put aside. Indeed, Amazon has announced its desire to reduce its investments in Alexa after its stock market crash in November 2022. According to the American giant, the Alexa division is operating at a loss with its 10,000 employees around the world. It has a deficit of $5 billion a year.
