Google has a record of halfheartedly stabbing at home automation (remember Android@Home?), and appears to have no plans of stopping as it reportedly tests out Nest-style internet-connected thermostats.
According to The Information the Google thermostat project is called EnergySense, makes use of 3rd party hardware (such as Ecobee thermostats) and is being tested by Google employees and "trusted testers" in the St. Louis area. Its aims? To create a more efficient energy grid, as well as the building of applications and services with the collected data.
If it all sounds somewhat familiar, it should-- Google already flirted with a very similar concept a few years back with PowerMeter. A free monitoring tool users could pair with smart power meters and HVAC controllers, it provided energy usage statistics via web-based dashboard.
However PowerMeter was unceremoniously killed off on September 2011 due to difficulties scaling it up.
Of course, there is no word on when Google will make EnergySense public, if at all. Judging from Google's track record with such projects, that might be, well, never.
