This is a three part device...one part clamps over the mains coming into the house, the other is a light by the door, and the other part, a smart plug for items that are left on deliberately...such as refrigerators. The microcomputer in the portion clamped around the mains measures the electricity being consumed by the entire house. The smart plugs measure the electricity being consumed by individual devices. If there is a difference, the light by the door goes on, indicating that you have left a light on, or maybe an iron plugged in.
-- senatorjam, Mar 20 2010

Key with lock status indicator Key_20with_20lock_20status_20indicator
A tangentially related idea [hippo, Mar 20 2010]

X-10 home automation systems http://www.x10.com/automation/index.html
Control your house over the net if you want. [RayfordSteele, Mar 24 2010]

Why not put it on individual circuits in the breaker panel or somewhere similar? That way you don't need the "Smart Plugs" or to be working with mains electricity.
-- Alx_xlA, Mar 20 2010


What if the light by the door fails ? Surely you need at least three ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 20 2010


Move the light to an indicator to a personal handheld device?
-- Aristotle, Mar 20 2010


Did I remember to bring/ turn on/ configure my personal handheld device?
-- hippo, Mar 20 2010


This is a good idea, if it can be done simply. I like the idea of non-contact measurement. As for the Ian's objection, the light need only be just inside the front door, not outside, so you can check as you're leaving. [+]
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 20 2010


But checking it would become automatic and, over time, slip below the surface of the conscious mind. At this point you'd be unable to quite remember whether you checked the "Did I leave a light on" light before you left the house. I suppose the answer would be a portable device which showed whether you had remembered to check - a sort of "Did I check the 'Did I leave a light on' light light".
-- hippo, Mar 20 2010


Logically, you should just stay at home, in the dark. Then you can see that your lights are off.
-- hippo, Mar 20 2010


The idea is to make is as simple as possible, and is to reduce incidences of OCD, did I leave the iron on, etc. Ian_Tindale... It would be placed be the inside of the door, not the outside, so it would not be an indicator nor invitation to burglars. Hippo...instead of running through each room to check, you can now check in one place to see if everything was turned off. Alx...re individual breakers, this is a retrofit, not a new build.
-- senatorjam, Mar 20 2010


Veering a little off topic here but I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on. I know I can do this already but it doesn't answer me back yet...and the remote, why doesn't the remote control have a pager number you can call so it beeps when it's lost?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 20 2010


//why doesn't the remote control have a pager number you can call so it beeps when it's lost?//

Sometimes I wish my phone had one of them.
-- Wrongfellow, Mar 20 2010


[senatorjam]//to reduce incidences of OCD// How? (I can see how it might reduce the disability caused by OCD, though.)
-- mouseposture, Mar 20 2010


// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on //

[2fries], we have the technology. You know you want it. Resistance is Futile ...
-- 8th of 7, Mar 20 2010


// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on //

We also have the technology. It's called "servants".
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 20 2010


// I can't wait for the day when you can phone your home and ask it if you left anything on //

I can't help but think of 2fries as an older more mature ET, trying to phone home. "Phone Home"...
-- blissmiss, Mar 20 2010


I solve this problem by leaving everything on. So I *know*
-- mouseposture, Mar 20 2010


Have I gone out without activating my "did i leave a light on" light?

Actually a better idea would be: "did I wash my pet aardvark's bathing trunks today" light.
-- xenzag, Mar 21 2010


// measures the electricity being consumed by the entire house. The smart plugs measure the electricity being consumed by individual devices. If there is a difference // you have a short and your house is about to burn down.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 21 2010


I like this, the smart house is already smart enough, and terribly expensive to install, but this would be a small step in that direction.

btw. 2fries, are you going to sit there and take that slam from Blissy?
-- dentworth, Mar 23 2010


To avoid worrying about leaving the iron on, you should replace your electric one with either a modern butane iron, or an old fashioned gasoline powered one.
-- goldbb, Mar 23 2010


//for every shirt you could have 2 cups of coffee//

You see, here's the basic problem with humanity. For goodness sake, can we not get a collective pair?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 23 2010


Tom Bodett finds this whole idea of not having a light on simply strange.

X-10, anyone?
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 24 2010


If there was a separate "super-circuit" for circuits powering things that must be on at all times (for instance the refrigerator, so the food doesn't spoil) you could ensure that only those things are on by simply turning the other circuits off at the breaker.
-- Spacecoyote, Mar 24 2010


Blissy can slam me all she wants, as long as she keeps that M&M's trail coming.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 24 2010


damn, forgot to put the did-I-leave-a-light-on-light on a smart plug...
-- xxobot, Mar 25 2010


[Space] The refrigerator doesn't need to be on all the time. If the door is shut the food will stay at the right temperature for hours. This is what makes refrigerators most suitable for intelligent power systems where, if the power grid is under a big load, it can tell everyone's refrigerators to turn off for half an hour. In fact, no clever signaling is needed: A cheap circuit built into the refrigerator could detect a decline in the frequency of the AC signal (the first sign of an AC power grid being under strain) and switch itself off. This sort of thing, applied at a large scale, could make electricity production much more efficient.
-- hippo, Mar 25 2010


Lazy power companies would come to rely on this and you'd (given enough time) end up with spoiled food.
-- xxobot, Mar 31 2010



random, halfbakery