Saving Money: How to reduce electricity usage

It's a small device in two parts.

A sending unit clips to the cable coming from the electricity meter while a portable receiving unit can be carried around the house to show the amount of energy being consumed.

Initially I thought it would be a waste of time however it has turned out to be a very useful present.

I can now keep a close eye on how much electric is being used even when I am in bed. In these harsh economic times every penny that can be saved must be saved.

The device even gives a rough idea how much my next bill will be together with the number of tonnes of carbon burnt to generate the electric however I'm not really bothered about that.

As automatic thermostatic devices like the fridge, freezers and the cooker switch on the figure on the display rises accordingly.

If there is a sudden spike I run around to find out what has come one. Even while writing this blog the display is placed in front of me.

The powers that be have convinced most people to switch to low energy bulbs to save energy after all leaving the lights on uses so much electricity doesn't it? Wrong!

From looking at the electric usage monitor it's quite clear that lights use very little energy.

Its the high power devices like the cooker, hoover and kettle that consume the electricity.

Initially I was fooled into converting to low energy bulbs but a few weeks ago converted back to tungsten bulbs and my decision is vindicated thanks to the energy monitor.

Leaving lights on, even traditional filament bulbs, doesn't cost that much at all indeed now I deliberately leave selected lights on, such as on the stairs and in the drawing room, to save the hassle of switching them off.

When you think about it a 60w light bulb will takes months to use energy taken by the cooker in an hour.

To save money I now make sure the food goes in the oven as soon as its up to temperature rather than leaving it to keep warm until I am ready to cook.

What's more I can sit at my computer writing my next blog and as soon as the oven is up to temperature and cuts out I can see the reading on the electric monitor fall so yours truly knows the cooker is ready without even having to trek out to the kitchen to check.

A large amount of energy is used hoovering the house so now I only clean once every month thus cutting the electric used by the vacuum cleaner by seventy five percent and saving my time too.

Rather than giving away the newfangled low energy bulbs the powers that be would have been better giving every house in the country a free energy monitor as they're probably one of the best things ever invented.

What do you think?

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