How would you like to save energy and save money on your electricity bill? What if you could reduce your electricity bill by between 20 and 25% each time? Electricity bills and wholesale prices have continued to soar just at the point where our consumption of electricity is increasing due to our dependence on household appliances and labour saving devices, or new technology devices. This makes it more and more difficult to keep electricity bills within budget, particularly for families, but there are a few practical ways in which we can all save money on our electricity bills and get our own back on the energy companies that continue to make huge profits at our expense.

1. Standby Reduction Devices.

A television usually consumes 70% of the electricity if left on standby that it would if it was switched on! It is not that people don’t care about turning appliances off but sometimes we just forget, especially last thing at night when we’re tired or first thing in the morning as we’re dashing out the door to work. A standby reduction device is a socket that slots into a normal electricity power point. You can then place your appliances in the socket as normal. You then use the remote control that comes with the standby reduction device to turn off your appliances from the comfort of your settee. This is a great device if you have a number of appliances across the house as you can turn them all off simultaneously without having to go to each individually. Just poke the remote around the door and they are switched off automatically. These will cost you around £15 each, but you are likely to recoup the cost within 12-18 months or sooner if you constantly leave appliances on overnight.

Here are just a few appliances that could benefit from a standby reduction device and help you save money on your electricity bill:

Television, DVD Player, Games Console, PC, Radio, Hi Fi, Microwave, Dishwasher, Washing Machine, Phone Charger.

2. Electricity Usage Monitors

These are fantastic devices because they allow you to monitor the amount of energy consumed by any electrical device. Electricity Usage Monitors simply plug into a normal household electricity socket and then you plug your kettle, TV, Fridge or any other electrical appliance into this. The Electricity usage monitor then takes a reading and calculates how many kilo-watt hours that appliance consumes. This is invaluable as you can accurately calculate how much each appliance is costing you to run by multiplying the Kilo Watt hour usage by the cost of each Kilo Watt hour displayed at the bottom of your electricity bill. This can really help you save money on your electricity bill by enabling you to identify and turn off or reduce the usage of electricity hungry appliances.

3. Turn Off lights when you leave a room.

This is a good habit to develop and will make a difference to your electricity bill. On average a light left switched on will cost you around 1p per hour.

Say you leave your lights switched on during the day whilst you are in the house or forget to turn them off before heading off to work, that could equate to 12 hours. That’s 12p per day per light. That’s £43.80 per year. The average house has around 5 rooms plus a hallway and landing area so that’s seven areas with a light. That’s potentially £306.60 per year extra on your electricity bill!

What’s more if you use spot lights instead of a single bulb you can see just how quickly electricity bill costs can escalate further as these consume more energy, because there are often more of them.

Increasingly these get handed out for free by local councils or energy saving organisations as a way of promoting more energy efficient lifestyles. If not you can pick them up at most shopping centres or DIY stores for between £2-3.

Energy saving light bulbs can save you money on electricity bills in two distinct ways. Firstly they often last up to 10 times longer than the old type light bulbs so you spend less as you don’t need to replace them as often. Secondly, you will save money from the cost of running the energy saving light bulb as it uses less electricity. According to the Energy Saving Trust , on average you can save approximately 33 Kilo Watt Hours (KWH) each year by using these instead of the old type light bulbs. Given this information It is not difficult to see how a simple measure like switiching to energy saving light bulbs can decrease your electricity bill.

5. Look for energy efficiency ratings and appliances.

Energy efficiency ratings are now routinely used on a number of appliances but primarily fridges and freezers. They detail how efficient the appliance is to run and are graded between A++ and D. You should look to choose appliances with the best rating, currently A++, as these will reduce your electricity bill significantly. To put things in perspective an A++ fridge freezer could save you between 400 to 500 KWH’s per annum on your electricity usage which roughly equates to between £500-600 a year on your electricity bill! So don’t just choose the cheapest option because over the long term a more expensive but energy efficient appliance is likely to help you save significantly on your electricity bill.

You can also get energy saving kettles, and central heating pumps which are the next biggest consumers of electricity and will help you to reduce your electricity bill further.

6. Generate your own electricity with Micro generation Technologies.

If you really want to save money on your electricity bill why not generate your own electricity and better still, sell your surplus back to the national grid? What are Micro generation technologies and how can they help me save money on my eletricity bill? Quite simply they are any type of mini energy generating device from solar panels to wind turbines suitable for fixing to a property or that generate energy on a small scale. Micro generation is becoming an increasingly popular way to become independent of the major energy companies and save money on your electricity bill, however they are a long term investment often not reaping the returns on your initial capital outlay for between 3-8 years.

You don’t need a huge house or estate to generate your own electricity, the newer modern wind turbines or solar panels can easily be fitted to any type of property, meaning that most of the population could benefit from reduced electricity bills through micro generation technologies.

If you are interested in this area then visit the Low Carbon Building Programme . They are offering grants of up to £2,500 to help with installation of a certified micro generation technology, providing it is fitted by a reputable and certified installer. Types of micro generation technologies covered are: