Free electricity meter to educate UK residents

By this May, the UK government wants to provide free clip-on electricity meter devices designed to show residents exactly how much they're spending on electricity, with the goal of encouraging them to reduce their consumption when they're made aware of the cost of the electricity they use. Of course, the government doesn't want to foot the bill for the project themselves, they'd like to see the energy companies pick up the tab. The energy companies, however, say the program is a stopgap on the way to more sophisticated "smart meters." Call us old-fashioned, but we prefer to break out the calculator and figure out the energy usage of our electronics manually, just like our great-great-grandfathers did.