It’s a scene repeated in millions of households each month.  A homeowner opens his electricity bill having no idea how much energy he’s consumed in the previous month.  Has the electric company accurately and honestly billed for the actual number of kilowatt-hours used?  What could have caused this month’s spike in usage?  Would installing LED light bulbs or an energy saving roof save him money?  What is a kilowatt-hour?

Each of these questions stems from the fact that, for most people, the methods used to calculate the cost of their monthly electricity usage is a mystery.  I don’t know anyone who actually reads their electricity meter to confirm the power company’s assessment.  Fortunately, the the Blue Line Innovations PowerCost monitor could change this.

The $99 device attaches via adhesive pad to you power meter and wirelessly transmits the real time power consumption of your house to a digital LCD monitor up to 100 feet away.  In addition to real time data, which could highlight the energy usage spikes of major household appliances, the PowerCost monitor can calculate in dollars and cents the actual hourly amount of money spent on electricity for various user supplied billing methods.  The large LCD display includes a clock and displays the outside temperature.

As with other devices, such as the hugely popular P3 International Kill-A-Watt power meter which I own and can measure individual appliance energy usage patterns, the true advantage offered by the PowerCost monitor (and others such as Google’s emerging PowerMeter tool) is knowledge.  In fact, when I first started using my Kill-A-Watt meter, I was so shocked at how much some electrical devices in my house cost per month that my behavior actually changed – not because I care about the environment or conserving energy, but because of the direct impact those behavioral changes had on my wallet.  So, by explicitly showing people the true cost of electricity consumption, companies like Blue Line Innovations, P3 International, and Google may accomplish more long term conservation than the most passionate environmentalist.