Families interested in energy saving can now compare their own achievements to those of government ministers in Whitehall.

Both the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Home Office now display their energy consumption online as part of a governmental energy saving drive.

A line chart updated every five seconds shows the number of Wh used, the number of units per hour, the likely carbon emissions produced and cost of the electricity, along with charting the changing energy consumption over the past 24 hours.

This combines to give citizens greater visibility than ever before of the amount of power that is being used at any one time - and how much it is costing the taxpayer.

Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne says: "We're opening up Whitehall's electricity and gas meters to public scrutiny; there can be no hiding place for energy waste in central government."

More departments are due to adopt the system in the coming months as the government aims to cut Whitehall's carbon emissions by ten per cent over the next year.