Digital Home Thoughts: GE To Be The Nucleus Of Your Power Monitoring

"The Nucleus home energy monitor and energy management system is a small device, about the same size and shape as a mobile phone charger, which can monitor and control connected appliances. It will only work with a smart meter that uses the Zigbee wireless protocol, which means it will only be available to consumers who are customers of utilities that have installed and activated smart meters."

Kill-a-watt is great, but this is even better. I have always wondered why Kill-a-watt never followed up with more advanced power monitoring, such as the ability to at least offload the data onto a flash drive, or a PC. GE seems to have heard my silent monologue to myself and has unveiled Nucleus. It is a great concept, and it supports one of the home control standards, which is another plus. But why, oh why, do these home automation type products always come in such huge, ugly wall warts?