Imagine if you could see how much energy every device in your home was using in real time.
That's the idea behind new technology developers say could dramatically cut power bills.
Perth start-up Ecocentric has teamed with the CSIRO to create a system called "Numen", which monitors the efficiency of everything from your fridge to your tablet when it's plugged in.
"Numen is a revolutionary device that is going to build a new understanding of the way we use energy," Tim Bray from Ecocentric told the ABC.
Mr Bray said the Numen was the missing link in Australia's energy debate.
He said the problem was most people have no idea how much energy they're using, so it's hard for them to become more efficient.
"When they get their standard quarterly bill they effectively see it, they might see it as a comparison to the month before but they really have no idea as to what's driving it," he said.
"What Numen will do is really allow them to get under the hood in terms of what's driving the way in which they're using energy right down to an individual device level.
"Individual lights, individual plugged-in things like computers and laptops, the stereo, plus the washing machine and fridge and those things as well."
Numen will tell users how much energy each device is using, whether it's running efficiently, and whether the device needs to be serviced or upgraded.
It also ranks devices by the amount of power they're using. The Numen is fitted to a meter box in a home, office building, or factory.
The CSIRO has developed a database, stored in a cloud, so Numen can recognise what's plugged in.
The Numen samples at 256,000 times a second, and the high frequency data it gathers produces patterns of energy use.
CSIRO senior experimental scientist Sam West explains Numen captures high frequency samples of voltage and current.
"We capture very detailed power characteristics of that appliance while it's running, and that turns into what we call a signature or fingerprint of that device," Mr West said.
"That gets stored in a database and then when we see new devices we can compare the same types of characteristics to what's in that database to identify its make and model."
Mr West said the CSIRO mapped the characteristics of devices so Numen could recognise them.
"We had a box and we would literally just plug devices into it and hit record, turn it on and off a few times and that would form the signature for that device," he said.
"It would capture really high-frequency samples of the voltage and the current the device was consuming.
"By doing statistics and analysis on those things we can form a signature for that device."
Energy retailer Alinta is the first company to come on board to distribute Numen to its customers.
Alinta's Jim Galvin told the ABC it would be months before it is at a viable price point for consumers.
But he said once it does reach that point, it will be significant.
"We see it as a game changer," he said.
The Energy Council of Australia said it could not comment on the Numen device, but that it welcomes any moves towards innovation in energy efficiency.