It is surprising the technology of the incoming call registration for telephone lines, but most of us are clueless about our electrical use. I assume it would cost an extra chunk to install the unit, but as more users ask for the monitor the cost could drop to where it actually pays for itself in a short time.

Due to higher peak loads and the risk of blackouts in the past few decades, there might be some way to have the initial cost of the monitoring units subsidized by the local government or utility provider.

This sounds great. People would be so much more efficient with energy usage if they actually knew how much it was costing them, in real time.

I love this idea. I actually wish I could get a gauge in my house that just translates the usage in real time to dollars so that I can actually watch my gas or electric bill go up in real time. Then I'd be sure to turn the light off in the other room!

Assuming you have a remote readable meter that is always networked, you can do that, in theory anyway. Your power provider will have to want to make that data available that way though.

You can get aftermarket devices you can install on the outside of your meter, which relay to a receiver device in your home. Both that and any data from the power company would be for the household.

To measure power draw for a specific device, you can get a plug-in electric meter called a kill-a-watt (there are other brands also).