If you are really charged up about energy conservation, you can monitor and manipulate your power usage with Modlet. This smart wall plug studies your appliances and transmits info to your computer about how much power they consume and when, along with recommendations for better conservation. It can also automatically shut off power to your electronic devices at a given time, but if you need to override that schedule, just tap the plug and it will keep things running as normal. The Modlet’s software component lets you check your overall power consumption on a graph, as well as power consumption by room and by individual device. Not bad for a wall plug.
A starter kit with one Modlet plug is for $59.95 at thinkeco.