This is not strictly a 'Create' topic, so forgive me for that. But in the current climate, it is relevent.

In Western Australia, we have a bit of a power problem at the moment. Seems someone might have been a tad careless and forgotten to rust proof a little ol’ gas pipe. Someone else was careless and allowed a fire to start. A rather big one. Consequently, we have a bit of an energy dilemma for the next 6 months or so.

(There’s no truth to the rumour that the West Coast Eagles have been preserving energy this year in sympathy).

Seriously, the time has come where we all need to conserve energy; the papers are full of it, the politicians making mileage out of it and in winter, a lot of people are feeling a bit colder than normal with their heaters off, coupled with shorter showers and no electric blankets.

It was in this climate I have discovered an interesting little gadget that I had first seen on a TV show on the ABC called “Carbon Cops”. In essence, it is a transmitter that clips to the powerlines in your meter box (forgive the lack of knowledge in possibly correct terminology here, electricity is not my thing) and a wireless receiver placed somewhere convenient in the house. The receiver updates every 6 seconds with Kw currently being used, KwHr, $ spent and the carbon footprint being used. There are also various other settings, an internal memory and other things I am still finding.

There are some minor traps. It costs $99 from Bunnings, and some information on the website (www.efergy.com.au) intimates that a handyman can install it. Not so; you MUST be a licensed electrician. Secondly, if you have 3-phase power as I have, you need to by an extra two modules for the meter box transmitter at $30 or so each. This makes the total bill including a sparky to fit it (takes about 10 minutes) to a couple of hundred bucks. It’s quite possible in the shorter term you won't recoup that, but the results you see when the unit is operational are stunning.

Sony Playstation 3’s absolutely chew power! So does an electric kettle, oven and oil heater. Turning off all computers (4), printers (3), modems and associated peripherals barely created a blip. Incandescent lights v the newer energy globes showed their guzzle power.

All quite illuminating really if you’ll pardon the pun.

Even the simple act of taking everything off standby overnight by pulling the plug makes a difference. It becomes a bit of a game as to how low you can go in your power usage and still be functional!