April 21, 2008 7:46 AM PDT
Ever wonder how much electricity your house consumes at a given moment? It might surprise you. It may even compel you to unplug the 20-year-old beer fridge in the basement.
Products like this one attach to your utility meter and show that information on the small display. Again, you can get different views of the consumption information.
But this sort of device--and many smart-grid devices--are most interesting when you pay different prices for electricity at different times of the day. This time-of-day pricing is already in effect in California and other states to reflect the cost of supply power during "peak" times.
Photo by Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com
Caption by Martin LaMonica
