Hohm was announced in late June as an incubator project within Microsoft to help users manage and track their home energy use, and potentially modify their habits in order to save money. The service is free to use, supported by advertising, but it wasn’t until today that the Redmond-based company opened the doors on Hohm to the general public – or at least to those living in the U.S.

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Wonder if it will work like Windows ME, or more like VISTA

Tried it. It asks a ba-jillion questions about your home and energy use, but nothing about your lifestyle or HOW you use energy in your home. Hence, I got some poor ratings for things like the use of many incandescent bulbs. All my incandescents are on dimmers and I rarely use the full setting, for some fixtures I almost never do. I wound up with a recommendation to "save" by switching to CFL's, yet my energy costs are already WAY lower than the "average" home.

I guess that's part of the problem, getting people to pay for expensive energy upgrades that will not, can not pay off, at least financially, in the long run. Upgrade my refrigerator? Really? And it'll take TEN YEARS to save any money? Yeah. I'm not doin' that.

Switching to CFL light bulbs will definitely save you money in the long run...that's much less drastic than the refrigerator; which is way more expensive than some light bulbs. Gotta pitch in for the environment where you can

That last statement is what a lot of this is about. Pitchin' in. Doing your part. Saving the planet. NOT, however, actually saving money. A ten-year payoff doesn't take into consideration what you COULD have been doing with all the money you "invested" in high-cost products up front.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against energy efficiency. It's ridiculous that we're still using products like incandescent bulbs that are at best 10% efficient.