How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your dishwasher or your washing machine? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood?

It’s nearly impossible to make informed choices about electricity. This is a problem but also a huge opportunity for us all to save money and help the environment by reducing our power usage. Studies show that access to your household's personal energy information is likely to save you 5–15% on your monthly bill. Even greater savings are possible if you use this information to see the value of retiring your old refrigerator, installing a new air conditioner or insulating your home. The potential impact of large numbers of people achieving similar efficiencies is even more exciting. For every six households that save 10% on electricity, for instance, we reduce carbon emissions as much as taking one conventional car off the road (see sources and calculation).

At Google they're helping enable a future where access to personal electricity information helps everyone make smarter energy choices. Google PowerMeter receives information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provides customers with access to their home electricity consumption right on their personal iGoogle homepage. Today Google is testing the product with utility partners in the US, India and Canada. They plan to expand the rollout of Google PowerMeter later this year.

Google PowerMeter offers more useful and actionable feedback than complicated monthly paper bills that provide little detail on consumption or how to save energy. But Google PowerMeter is just a start; it will take a lot of different groups working together to create what the world really needs: a path to smarter power.