Digital Home Thoughts: Keeping Tabs On Your Power consumption

"Knowledge is power. And if you have People Power 1.0, People Power’s new mobile Energy Services Platform, you can use knowledge to save power – and money. People Power 1.0 is an open and extensible cloud-based platform that allows you to monitor up-to-the-minute household energy usage from an iPhone or Android smartphone."

If you are ready to upgrade from using your Kill-o-Watt meter to track your power usage, and your electric company has not caught up witht he times, it may be time for some People Power. Living in a digital world means that we consume electricity; sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little. The way to minimize your electrical footprint though, is to know what you use that sucks up juice. What looks most useful is that you can track individual devices relatively easily thorugh the use of their powerstrips, instead of just getting the use of one device at a time, or of your whole household. While you can figure out what uses how much power the old way, a lot of extra hassle is involved, and that might just be enough hassle to push your energy tracking project away a few weeks, months or even years.