I am an electrician and it amazes me when I visit customer's homes just how much energy they are wasting and they are often unaware of how they can reduce their energy costs.



Now, I am no saint myself but I am becoming more aware of energy consumption and the cost of energy for my own home. I am starting to feel like my elders of days gone by when they would keep saying "Turn out that light, switch off that radio" etc. does that sound familiar? I find myself doing the same thing with my 12yr old son.

You can do something about YOUR energy bill if you follow the steps I want to show you.

Most of us have to pay for the energy we consume from a power company and they usually charge us for every unit of power we use in the home or at work. All electrical appliances we use are rated by watts. This is a unit of power consumed generally expressed as kilowatt power used per hour.

Now you might not be aware, that basically, if it is plugged in it could be costing you money every single minute of the day when you are not using it. What do I mean by this?

Well, if you have anything with a warning/standby light showing when you are not using it, then it is consuming energy and costing you money. Some examples of this might be a modern electric kettle, a dishwasher when it has finished its cycle, a computer and monitor - not forgetting your printer, the TV, set top box, DVD or Video player, Radio/alarm clock in the spare room, that old fridge you keep drinks cool in for the summer and it is almost empty the rest of the year.

One way you can slash your energy prices at a stroke today, is to start getting into the habit of turning off all those appliances you are not using. Yes I know, the plug might not be easy to get to, especially if it is hidden behind that TV stand, and looking like a bird's nest of wires where it is hard to find which lead fits what plug.

There are all sorts of sites which offer guidance on power consumption but that is not the purpose of this article. I just want you to be aware that you can actually save yourself some real cash each year for only a small amount of effort and a bit of discipline.

Your TV set and VCR, DVD are some of the biggest robbers in our homes. You might have a TV, DVD, Video, and Set Top Box, Play-station or other appliances plugged in. My room is no different to anyone elses last thing at night. When I turn off the TV and the room lights I see a soothing aray of coloured stanby lights smileing at me!

Now it is those tiny little lights that should be ringing alarm bells in our heads and screaming at us "I am costing you money every second of every minute and every hour of the day........" you get the meaning?

I saw a programme recently where someone demonstrated that his TV alone used a third of the power it used normally, just by being left on standby. That is quite alarming. Can you see how easy it is the start slashing your energy consumption in a single flick?

Get into the habit of switching off all your gadgets, those extra lights in the room and unplug those you are not sure about just in case. It is good practice to unplug appliances from the socket just in case there is a wiring fault. A neighbour's son bought a new computer and left it switched on all the time. It caught fire and they had to call the fire brigade. There must have been a manufacturing fault with the PC and he was really lucky to be home when it caught fire!!