Google's plan to help green your house

I have the parts on my workbench to build a Wattcher for some time now.  It's a cheap AC power meter mixed with some WiFi components and the end result is something you can plug into an outlet to transmit power consumption data to your PC from any appliance in your house.  It's a neat idea and one that will appeal to the Greenies among us.  I'm not necessarily counting myself in that crowd but if I can save a buck on my electric bill, I'm sold. 

And I'm a sucker for a cool electronics project, especially if it means I can fire up my soldering iron.

Now it looks like Google is getting into the act with their new PowerMeter project, which sounds very similar.  Using some sort of sensing device (either at your service entrance or on individual devices), data about your power consumption will be transmitted to Google and you will be able to view the data and find out just how much of an electron junkie you really are.

There are no plans or pictures of the devices you'd need in your house to do this but if Google's pursuing it, those aren't far behind.

Source: Makezine.com