I Was Alarmed When I Discovered Just How Much Energy I Was Wasting - Are YOU Too?

Sick of rising energy costs? - Discover How You Can Slash Your Energy Costs Starting Right Now.

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 do exactly the same with my own young son who uses loads of gadgets.

I would like to just bring you a few tips on what YOU can do immediately after you read this article.

We all pay for energy one way or another at home and at work, unless we have an alternative. 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?

Have you noticed that some of your home appliances have a little red light to tell you it is on standby? What it does not tell you is it is consuming energy even though you believe it is switched off. 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. What if you discovered how easy it is to cut your fuel bills with a minimum of effort and without it costing you a penny.

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. Now I know in my room I have most of those and they can mostly all be turned off by a remote control and you just see a few pretty coloured standby lights showing when you turn out the lights and go to bed!

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 always safer if unplugged anyway. One of my customer's sons had a new computer which he left on all the time, just like his old one. It caught fire and they had to call the fire brigade. The appliance was obviously faulty and fortunately he was at home to prevent it being worse that it would have been had he gone out!!