Home Energy Monitoring App Busts Aussie Teen’s Secret Party

Home Energy Monitoring App Busts Aussie Teen’s Secret Party


The only thing a father cares about more than his kids is his kids wasting electricity. And it was South Australian dad David Rowe’s obsession with monitoring his home’s power usage that helped him bust his daughter’s secret New Year’s eve party.

Using a $US120 device called a Fluksometer — which connects to a fuse box and wirelessly reports your home’s energy use to an Android app — he was able to see a spike in power consumption while he was in a restaurant 800km away.

Rowe knew his kids were supposed to be staying elsewhere that night, and he wondered if the recent hot weather would cause a jump in electricity use in an empty house — say, an extra cycle on the fridge. He logged on remotely to find electricity consumption that looked more like the patterns he recognised from time spent running the air conditioning, lights and television at the same time. That meant one of two things: either someone had broken in and made themselves at home, or his daughter was hosting a party. And, of course, it turned out to be the latter. So remember, kids, if you’re lucky enough to have a geek for a dad, don’t try to pull any fast ones. We’re always connected, and we always know. (Maniacal laugh.) [Rowetel]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.