It's all part of a new era being born in Newcastle under the Smart Grid, Smart City program, which has green-minded households rolling out the welcome mat.

The Robsons of Kotara said they would put their hands up to become a "smart house".

"We'll be first in line I reckon," David Robson said.

"We have three boys so we consume a bit of energy."

Smart houses would be fitted with in-house displays and use a website to track electricity and water use, their costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

"I think one of the biggest improvements you can make is in behavioural changes and if you can monitor what you are doing, you're armed with the information to make those changes," Mr Robson said.

"If we're using a lot of power during peak times, we may all of a sudden discover it's cheaper to delay putting on the dishwasher or change the time of day we run our pool pump."