Electricity – it’s a necessity. But are we taking it for granted? We waste so much electricity without even knowing, which in turn wastes hard-earned cash. So what can you do to change your electricity-wasting ways and save cash, fast?

Well first you need to think about something called ‘Vampire Power’. This is power that is used to keep your electrical appliances on ‘standby’. Appliances on stand-by add over $100 to your electricity bill and produce around 85kgs of CO2 per year. So as you can see, this Vampire power just sucks the money right out of your wallet.

There are two categories of appliances that use Vampire power around your house:

The first is devices with a standby function.

Whenever you can use a remote turn something on – it’s using standby power. This function can use up to 40% of an electrical device’s total power consumption – and just think – how long do you keep your TV/DVD player/Playstation/Wii/Stereo on standby for every day?

The second is transformers.

These appliances transform electricity from AC to DC. The problem when it comes to energy consumption is that most of them are pretty cheaply made and continue to use electricity - even when the appliance they’re providing power for is turned off.

For example – if a cell phone is completely charged, the transformer/charger is still using electricity. If it’s warm when the device is off, it’s using vampire power.
Turn off appliances at the wall switch
When purchasing a new electrical appliance, look for the energy star label to gauge its energy consumption rate.
Keep your dryer clean – it increases the efficiency of the machine which means it uses less power to do a better job. And it decreases the fire risk as well!
Do loads of washing in the dryer consecutively so you can make us of the heat that is already built up.
Use an extractor fan to keep your kitchen cool. It’ll keep your house cooler, and the savings in the cost of cooling your house will by far outweigh the cost running the fan.
Close doors to rooms that you are not using when heating or cooling your house.
Turn off your computer – this appliance is a real power-waster, so turn it off when you’re not using it.
Use power-saver bulbs such as compact fluorescent bulbs. These use 75% less energy than standard light bulbs.
Every now and then – vacuum or dust the metal compressor coils on the back of your fridge. Like your dryer – it will increase the efficiency of the appliance and it will therefore run using less power.
Use gas heaters instead of electric heaters – these heaters use significantly less power.

So here are a few tips to keep your power bill down:

These are just some of the ways in which you can save yourself from stress when the power bill arrives, not to mention a significant amount of payday cash. And what’s even better, is you’ll also be doing your bit for the environment by reducing your annual carbon emissions.

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