After taking an easy first step in my quest to eliminate my power bill -- that is, switching to CFL bulbs -- it was time to learn more about where my opportunities lie.  To help answer that question, I needed to call in professional help.  Fortunately, my new friend TED was able to offer assistance.

TED is great with numbers.  With TED's help, I now know just how much electricity different devices use.    Not only that, but TED is available every day to guide me toward identifying the changes I should make to have the biggest impact.  Isn't TED a great friend?  Sure is, but actually TED isn't a person.  TED stands for The Energy Detective, and it is a device that mounts in the breaker panel and records the amount of total power being used by the service. 

The TED 5000 is a three part device.  The first item (the MTU) mounts in the breaker panel.  It is wired to one of the breakers and transmits a signal through the house wiring to the second item, the Gateway.  The Gateway plugs into any outlet and receives a pulse every second from the MTU.  The Gateway uses an ethernet cable to connect to your existing network router which allows you to view real time data on your computer.  The third item is a wireless display that displays real time power usage.  If you want to know how much power the dehumidifier in the basement is using, carry the wireless display with you and watch the change in wattage as you turn it on and off.

So, just how is this new toy going to help me reach my goal?  Because it's already been said better than I could say it, I'll let the words of the great Lord Kelvin answer the question.

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.

Below is a screen capture of the TED interface in action.