Gadget Heaven, Electric Hell
We live in a time of technology. Our homes are filled with gadgets designed to make our lives easier, pleasanter or entertaining. The average UK citizen has, at the very least, a TV, DVD player, computer or console, and perhaps a cordless telephone.
We all know how to save electricity. Turning lights off when you leave the room, only boiling as much water in the kettle as you need, doing full loads instead of half loads in the washing machine etc. But what many people seem to forget or just not realise is that our love of gadgets can eat into our electricity bills more than anything else.
Look around your home; how many red lights can you see? You may think that by turning your TV or console onto standby you're saving electricity; you are, but you could save so much more by switching it off altogether when not in use.
Putting a gadget into standby mode still requires a current of electricity to be fed to the unit in order to start it up quickly when switched on. While this might not amount to much, perhaps 0.14 kWh per week for a standard plasma screen TV, take into account all the other gadgets and appliances in your home and it soon mounts up to a lot of wasted electricity.
The good news is, it's really simple to stop this wastage. By simply turning your TV off at the socket you could save several pounds per year; in a time of rising household bills this could really be useful. Combine it with all the other energy saving tips which are probably all to familiar, and you could make a substantial saving on your bill.
If you think your electricity bills are still too high, why not think about switching your utilities to a provider who charges less per unit of electricity? Compare electricity prices from various suppliers, you could be shocked at the difference.
About the Author: J Tillotson is a financial author in the UK
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Print Article | Download PDF | 14 views | Sep 23 2008
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