Gadgetory

see there folks I'm CNN's Megan bulletins in a cramped hallway in my condo looking at neurio this little black device here a hole home energy monitor basically this two hundred and forty nine dollar gizmo plugs into your circuit breaker and keeps track of all of the energy usage throughout your home neurio comes with an Android or iOS mobile app and a web app that lets you track in real time your energy consumption so I literally walked around my condo turned on the stove turned on the AC turned off the AC flips on a fan just to see what difference it would make and the results were pretty astonishing I could see everything in real time it really was fast and responsive and I really got a sense of the difference that one single light switch can make on your energy consumption aside from just real time energy consumption information you can also break it down by appliances but neurio is currently limited to 400 watts for energy appliance breakdowns so it can do stuff like your stove it can do your AC it can do your toaster a lot of stuff that generates heat but for smaller wattage things like your refrigerator or a single light switch it can't do itemized appliance breakdowns but neurio does say that that as well as integration with third-party products like the Nest Learning Thermostat are on the way even though neurio does have some limitations right now I think it is a really interesting device that's only going to get better with time that said installation is complicated do not try this yourself unless you are a very very experienced ðï wire if you're not I would enlist an experienced friend or even call a professional because you don't want to be messing around with an open breaker panel there are just all sorts of hazards here that someone who doesn't know better wouldn't know about so to be clear Steve our technical editor did do all of the installation with neurio just to make sure that everything was safe and secure and he switched off the power to everything before removing at this panel for this video neurio is definitely a cool product that I would recommend but if you're on the fence I'd stay tuned because Belkin and a couple other startups are coming out with products very similar later this year but if you are looking for an energy tracker right now neurio is a solid option and a two hundred and forty nine bucks it's the same price as the Nest Learning Thermostat that's not bad considering that it provides whole home energy tracking for more on neurio check out cnet.com i'm megan Willerton for CNET appliances