IBM and a company called Consert launched a pilot project in North Carolina earlier this year to see how much energy homes and businesses could save if they had a handy web dashboard that let them monitor and control its use. Here's how it worked:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylil_8TarA4The results, released today, are impressive: After six months of the pilot project, the average savings at homes and businesses was 15 percent; after the six-month trial period Consert has measured energy savings of as much as 40 percent in some participating homes.