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The idea of a fully connected smart home that can be controlled entirely from your phone may sound appealing, but it's expensive.

But now there's a $250 (£168) device called Neurio that claims to make any 'ordinary home smart'.

The device recognises the electronic signature of different devices - such as kettles and washing machines - allowing users to keep an eye on their energy consumption and even control appliances through their phone.

One device to rule them all: A $250 (£168) device called Neurio (pictured) claims to make 'an ordinary home smart'. It recognises the electronic signature of different devices, such as kettles and washing machines, allowing users to keep an eye on their energy consumption and even control appliances through their phone

'We are trying to create one sensor that can make every home smart,' Ali Kashani, co-founder of Neurio told Fast Company. 

'It creates that intelligence for all of the dumb products that are already in your home and that you don't want to replace.'

Its website says: 'Using a Wi-Fi power sensor and a cloud service with some smart pattern detection algorithms, Neurio monitors your home's electricity to figure out what your appliances are up to - without the need to install sensors on every device.' 

Neurio feeds information about energy consumption of the devices it's recognised back to an app, where users can make decisions about how to save power and money by turning gadgets off, for instance. These screenshots show the home screen (left), appliances recognised (centre) and usage for one day (right)

The device plugs into a breaker box, or circuit box in a house where it gradually learns to recognise the electric 'signature' of different gadgets and appliances.

Users can train Neurio to recognise a light bulb for example, by flicking a light on and off to tell the accompanying app what to detect.

Alternatively, an algorithm allows it to learn for itself based on crowdsourced information, to tell it what a microwave's signature looks like, for example.

Neurio feeds information about energy consumption of the devices it's recognised back to an app, where users can make decisions about how to save power and money by turning gadgets off, for instance.

'It you will even gently nag you if you forget to turn off the lights before going to bed,' the website says.

'…Some customers have saved as much as 44 per cent on their energy usage.'

Because it monitors the home around the clock, Neurio can give owners peace of mind if they think they have left their oven switched on, for example. 

The device monitors a home around the clock so it can tell users if they have left their oven on, if their washing is finished and if the water is cold (all illustrated). When used with another app, Neurio can be used to turn appliances and household devices on and off remotely

It can also be used to keep an eye on inhabitants, by showing if relatives are eating regularly or if children are spending too long watching television, for example.

The device can send reminders to take washing out of the machine when the cycle is complete, for example.

And it also allows users to control home appliances remotely by using apps such as IFTTT, to start a washing machine while they are out, for example.

Neurio is open platform so it can work with smart devices such as the Nest thermostat too.