Ever wonder how many watts an IBM ThinkPad T42 consumes? Answer: 33 watts when idle.
This device, the Kill A Watt, lets you find out how much electricity different devices around the house use. My 6-year-old desktop computer uses 125 watts, not including the monitor. So now I use my laptop more. There are a number of settings to tell you how many watt-hours you consume over a certain period.
This is hardly sophisticated smart-grid technology. But it's the kind of information that people need to make efficiency choices.
Photo by Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com
Caption by
Martin LaMonica
