A energy utility company in San Diego recently held a Biggest Energy Saver Campaign, which used a cloud platform to measure the energy savings of participants and post the results on Facebook.

"Harnessing the power of the vibrant app developer community rather than focusing on a closed platform and a narrow set of applications will win out in the end," said Kent Dickson, chief technical officer of Tendril, a company that provided contestants with smart thermostats, outlet plugs and other devices. "The results from the Biggest Energy Saver campaign bear out the merits of this approach and the benefits that it provides to utilities, developers and consumers."   

Approximately 200 customers of the utility participated in the three-month contest, in which the winner was able to experience nearly 47 percent energy savings by making energy efficient electric choices, saving the equivalent of 1,365 kilowatt-hours of energy.

Students in California are learning about energy efficient practices, reported Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC. By building an energy efficient home, called the CHIP solar house, students from two local schools near Exposition Park were able to construct a house with a monthly power bill of zero.