A close look at Curb's whole-home energy tracking system

Curb is a gadget that clamps into your breaker box to track your entire home's energy usage. Click through for a closer look.

You'll need to hire a professional to install Curb -- they'll be clamping these sensors directly onto each circuit.

Once they do, those sensors will feed your home's energy consumption data back to the main device.

It can be hard to transmit data wirelessly from the inside of a metal box, so instead, Curb transmits the data to this powerline adapter through your home's electrical current. Plug that adapter into your router with an Ethernet cable, and you'll be all set.

Once Curb is installed, you'll be able to track your home's energy usage on your phone or computer. This sweeping radar-like display shows you real-time consumption data right down to the second.

You can also view your home's power consumption over time in a variety of different ways. This stacked graph shows you how much each light, device and appliance is contributing to your total energy consumption over time. You can also track the energy production of any solar panels you might own in the same way.

Curb offers an integration with Samsung's SmartThings connected home platform that'll let you act on that energy data and turn things off remotely, right from the Curb app.

Curb costs $400, plus whatever the electrician who installs it charges you. That's not inexpensive, but it's still a pretty impressive pitch, and a product that the CNET Smart Home team will be keeping a close eye on this year.