Electricity consumption meter with piggy backed e-commerce system and method

An electricity meter for measuring consumption of electricity provided from a utility via a transmission line to a consumer system, the utility comprising an electricity consumption data collection server accessible via a Wide Area Network (WAN), the meter comprising:

• an input for attachment to the transmission line;
• an output for attachment to the consumer system;
• a real time clock;
• a voltage sensor for measuring from time to time a voltage at a point of connection between the transmission line and the consumer system;
• a current sensor for measuring from time to time a current flowing between the transmission line and the transmission line;
• a processor for calculating a present energy consumption from said measured voltage and said measured current;
• a memory for storing from time to time at least said measured voltage and said measured current together with a time stamp;
• a display for displaying at least said present energy consumption;
• and
• a communication module comprising nearfield network circuitry for transmitting said measured voltage and said measured current to a hand held device and a WAN circuitry for transmitting from time to time said measured voltage and said measured current to the data collection server.

A method for providing an electricity consumption metering system with piggy backed e-commerce, comprising:

• attaching each of a plurality of electricity consumption meters at a respective consumer location along transmission lines of an electricity transmission system, said transmission lines supplying electricity to a plurality of consumers;
• measuring a consumer electricity consumption at each of said respective consumer locations;
• transmitting from time to time said measured consumer electricity consumption to a data collection server via a Wide Area Network (WAN);
• retrieving said consumer electricity consumption of the given consumer using a handheld device;
• and
• displaying said consumer electricity consumption of the given consumer on said consumer's device together with a product from an e-commerce system selling a plurality of different products.