If you leave your computer on overnight, how much does that cost you? What about all those unnecessary lights you have turned on in your house? How much money could you save if you had bought an energy-saving refrigerator instead of a regular one?

General Electric answers these questions with a nifty interactive tool that displays the energy consumption rates of oft-used home appliances. It tracks 53 devices and you can choose to see how much power each appliance consumes in watts or kilowatthours. Alternatively, you can see how much each appliance costs to use in dollars, and how much it consumes in equivalent gallons of gas.

Clicking on various appliances turns them on or off. An overall energy consumption rate is calculated in the lower right corner of the tool.

Some appliances are marked with a green star; this means that an Energy Star power-saving product is available in that class of appliance. Clicking on the star, you'll see how much money you can save by replacing your old appliance with an Energy Star model.

[via Pentagram]