TED, The Energy Detective, in the New York Times Green Inc. Blog

TED, The Energy Detective is finally getting it's due. For months, we have trumpeted the benefits of this whole house electricity monitoring device, and benefited from its lessons.While individual appliance monitors like the Kill-a-Watt are great at letting us know how much energy individual power hogs use up---giving us a read on everything from the toaster to the plasma TV, the energy detective gives you a read on the entire house.  In a post on today's New York Times Green Inc blog, At Home with the Energy Detective, Joe Hutsko lays bare the energy costs of every day actions in his household.

Hutsko's breakdown points out the true value of a home energy monitoring device: meaningful change begins when we have a solid understanding of the problems we need to take on.  What is particularly great about the NY Times post is its presentation of the precise level of appliance-by-appliance measurement you can achieve with the TED. Though it technically measures the whole house, by getting to your base use, and turning on one thing at a time, you can identify the big users one by one.

We've said repeatedly that the home energy efficiency story starts with measurement. Google's PowerMeter announcement has dominated the energy monitoring news of the last few weeks, but typically in the context of utility-supplied smart meters as the source of the home electricity data. We've applauded Google's public commitment to the promise that consumers throughout the country will change usage behavior once they understand the cost of failing to do so.  For the millions of us living in areas where smart metering is years away, TED the energy detective is a smart meter that is available today.

One of the added benefits of TED that Hutsko didn't cover is getting kids engaged. We made a deal to share half the savings with ours and now two young energy saving entrepreneurs have taken the lead role in home electricity management in our house. The behavior change difference between the requisite "don't forget to turn out the lights" and "what got left on that we're running at $.50/kwh?" has been amazing.

One other thing the Times post didn't mention is the Footprints software available with the TED. We recommend it strongly as the best way to track, monitor and analyze  the data TED generates.