The only thing a father cares about more than his kids is his kids wasting electricity. And it was Australian dad David Rowe's obsession with monitoring his home's power usage that helped him bust his daughter's secret New Year's eve party.
Using a $120 device called a Fluksometer—which connects to a fuse box and wirelessly reports your home's energy use to an Android app—he was able to see a spike in power consumption while he was in a restaurant 500 miles away.
Rowe knew his kids were supposed to be staying elsewhere that night, and he wondered if the recent hot weather would cause a jump in electricity use in an empty house—say, an extra cycle on the fridge. He logged on remotely to find electricity consumption that looked more like the patterns he recognized from time spent running the air conditioning, lights, and television at the same time. That meant one of two things: Either someone had broken in and made themselves at home, or his daughter was hosting a party. And of course, it turned out to be the latter. So remember kids, if you're lucky enough to have a geek for a dad, don't try to pull any fast ones. We're always connected, and we always know. (Maniacal laugh.) [Rowetel]