We love innovative green products, and DIY Kyoto’s sleek and stylish Wattson electricity monitor is up there with the best of them. It monitors your house’s power consumption, letting you know when you’re being unkind to Eskom, without causing an installation commotion.

 

The amount of Watt (Wattson - get it?) your house is consuming is displayed in big, bold numbers on top of the monitor, which Wattson can convert to the amount of Rands being used. You’re not always close enough to read the display, therefore the unit also glows in colour, with blue being good, purple being so-so, and red indicating a dent to your pocket if you don’t switch off some lights.

 

Unlike other monitoring solutions, the Wattson doesn’t need an electrician to install. A sensor simply clips around the main cable that leads into your home’s distribution box (circuit breaker panel). It transmits your power consumption wirelessly to the Wattson unit via a transmitter that runs on batteries. The transmitter unit is large enough to look unsightly if just left dangling, so you might have to screw it into the wall.

Wattson can also be connected to your PC, to display totals, averages and comparisons on the included Holmes software. It's a very innovative solution, which should keep your electricity consumption checked in the long run.