On Monday, Andrea told you about smart meters and how they can help you monitor your home's energy usage.

How would you use a smart meter to manage your energy use?

Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments. [More]

Have you heard of smart meters? Do you understand them? If so, you've had a leg up on me until now. I've heard of smart meters here and there from the odd news article or website, but to me the grapevine has been more like an invisible beehive: all buzz and no honey. Where are they? Why don't I have one yet, and will I have to buy it to be part of the system? Do they really save energy? Is Big Brother counting my kilowatts for me now, or what? These are the questions that don't keep me up at night, but I suspect more and more people are asking.

We talked about what a Smart Grid is in February. The standard electrical grid is a collection of transmission lines, substations, transformers, and more that deliver electricity from the power plant to your home or business. A Smart Grid includes digital technology that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and the sensing along the transmission lines. [More]

Home Energy Assessments are a practical, straightforward way to improve the overall efficiency of your home. Learning how to better manage home energy use can lead to significant cost savings. You may have enlisted the help of a professional auditor to perform the evaluation or relied on an annual, do-it-yourself review—but what if you could monitor your home's energy use on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis?

That's exactly what Smart Grid technology offers—providing both consumers and utilities with the information to better manage electricity use, in real time. [More]