Sure, the Kill-a-Watt power meter is great for helping you measure just how many little lightning bolts your appliances are eating every day (confession: we don’t really know how electricity works), but the new Energy Joule network monitor provides an entirely different level of feedback, so that you can throttle your consumption at times when energy is most expensive.

It’s basically a fancy nightlight with the guts of an Ambient Devices product, which means it connects to Ambient’s pager-like network and gets updated with information about your local energy cost and usage several times each hour. Energy prices can fluctuate throughout the day, so the idea is you’d be able to see when prices are in the “there-goes-the-college-fund” range and turn off your hungriest appliances for a few hours. It’s currently available in NYC and select other areas on a case by case basis, and there are plans to expand the program in the coming months.

You save money, there are more little lightning bolts to share with the rest of the grid, and one more baby penguin will be able to take another year of tap. Or something like that.

Energy Joule [Ambient Devices]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.