An ‘intelligent’ plug is being developed that will switch off electrical devices such as TVs and desk lamps when they are not being used.
It is part of an electrical system designed to cut household power bills by keeping watch over energy use.
Home owners will be told how much power every device is soaking up, and when equipment is operating needlessly.
The system will also detect and switch off devices that have been carelessly left on in empty rooms.
Researchers hope to see the plugs fitted as standard to all domestic appliances within a few years.
They will transmit information to a central control point in the home.
Dr John Woods, one of the researchers working on the project at the University of Essex in Colchester, said: “Home owners will be able to see how much power every single device uses.
“You will be able to see if a fridge has failed, or if something has been left on that should not have been.”
The plug, which will look no different from a normal 13 amp one, will also contain an ‘integrated motion sensor’, The Engineer magazine reported.
The new smart plug will look the same as a 13 amp one but is designed to cut energy bills
This will detect when there is little activity in a room where a device such as a TV has been left on. The plug will alert the central controller, which can then switch the device off.
“If something is turned off and you don’t want it to be, you simply flick the switch off and flick it back on again and the central controller will recognise that you don’t like that service being compromised,” said Dr Woods.
The plug is being developed with a £90,000 award from the Carbon Connections Development Fund, a green initiative managed by the University of East Anglia.
The aim is to reduce domestic energy consumption, which is responsible for a third of all the electricity used in the UK.
A batch of prototypes should be ready within six months, say the researchers.
They will be tested in Essex University’s ‘iSpace’ department, where hi-tech gadgets can be tried out in home surroundings.
Dr Woods estimates that the plugs would have to cost less than £1 each to be a commercial proposition. However, with mass production he believes this should be possible.
A spokesman for the Energy Saving Trust said: “The average British household wastes £28 each year by leaving appliances on standby. Across the UK this is equivalent to the annual output of more than two 700megawatt power stations.”
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