Black & Decker - Power Monitor
Apparently, not only do Black & Deck make power tools, but also a tool to monitor the power used by said tools (ok that sentence didn't work). This model is part of their 'Energy Saver Series', Model EM100B. Before you doze off, let me tell you why this is cool. Screw the planet. I mean sure, we'd like to save it, but the bottom line is our bottom line - how much money we use. And with this gizmo, you can use less power and lower your energy bills while ALSO saving the planet AND conducting useless experiments with different power sapping appliances. But I digress. The Monitor has a wireless sensor 'belt' that you loop around your outdoor power meter. It actually reads the moving dials, transmits it to the device and figures out how much electricity you're using. Input your energy prices on the monitor and you'll get real time, up to the minute costs. By far the COOLEST feature is the 'Tare' function. You press a button, and the monitor reads 0 dollars/0 electricity used. Then you flip on your new 50-inch HDTV, and the screen displays the cost to run ONLY that item - per minute, hour, days, etc. You can find out exactly which gadgets suck up the most electrons, and how much it's costing you. No more Kill-A-Watt's in every outlet, this gizmo handles them all. You'd expect this type of tech to come with a steep price, but it's only $99! Use the Meter Compatibility Guide on the site to make sure your power meter works with it. Otherwise, this looks like a top buy. P.S. Here's a great WSJ review on the device: http://bit.ly/kyTMx
