A very cool little project is underway in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. The West Coast has always had the reputation of being a bit more ecologically progressive so hopefully something similar will eventually spread Eastward. The program currently being tested among 40,000 residents by Puget Sound Energy allows you to track and compare your power consumption to that of of your neighbours in order to evaluate your own conservation efforts and your homes energy efficiency.
No personal details or specifics are released, so its not like you can use the data to determine if the guy next door is running a Hydroponic operation in his basement. What you do get is a tool that allows homeowners to compare their own energy consumption against an average based on 100 similar sized homes in the vicinty. Running above average? Turn down the heat a notch or remember turn off the lights, then compare again. The best part is that if everybody starts paying attention to their own energy use, and keeps trying to get "below the average", the average drops. Even more energy is saved as everybody tries even harder to leave a smaller carbon footprint.
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