The folks are away, so it's time to party! Or so David Rowe's teenage daughter thought. How could her dad find out if he's hundreds of miles away?
The geek way, of course, by measuring his house's power consumption using Fluksometer:
On New Years Eve 2011 I was in Geelong at a restaurant, 800km from my home in Adelaide. This year I happened to be away from my children, who were staying elsewhere in Adelaide while I was interstate. My home was supposedly vacant. However I knew it was very hot in Adelaide that day (40C) and I wondered if this would affect my power consumption, for example an increased duty cycle on the fridge. I am just that sort of power-geek.
So I checked my Fluksometer via my 3G android phone. I was surprised to see 1000W being used since 1pm – about what my Air-con uses. I also noticed that around 7pm the power jumped by a few 100W, just like the lights had gone on, or perhaps the TV.
Looked like some one was in my home. On New Years Eve. Hmmmmmm.
Damn you, technology! Link - via Gizmodo Australia