SmartPlanet: Want a smart meter? Try your electric bill first

With all the talk of smart meters---Google is a big fan---there's already a lot of data you're not using.

And that data happens to be printed on your electric bill, according to Smart Planet's John Dodge. He should know.

Dodge writes:

The proof is in the numbers: from January to April, 2007, our household usage dropped from an embarrassing 1,841 kilowatt hours to a 758. Hey, the kids were home from college and because they don’t pay the bills, they were not terribly concerned about conservation.

Dodge did that with just the information on his electric bill. Sure beats a $2,500 smart meter.