How many things are plugged in at your house right now? 10? 20? More?

Apparently, appliances can account for 25% of home energy use and although you may not be aware (I wasn’t), most appliances have a built in standby mode when they are not operating. These appliances use low levels of power that are needlessly hurting the environment and costing you more than you expect each month.

According to the National Appliance and Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee, standby power consumption accounts for up to 10% of household electricity usage.  Standby power costs consumers over $950 million per annum and generates more than 6.5 Million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Ouch.

Most of us (well those that pay the bills) are aware of the impending energy price hike and so today Mamamia contributor Madeleine Babiolakis has prepared a quick guide to saving costs on your electricity bills

Commit these points to memory,  pass them on to your friends and your family and save yourself some cash to buy next year’s Christmas presents.

Okay so now we know what to switch off but let’s ponder this – if you wanted to change your energy provider for a different one would you know what to do ?  Have you been sucked into a contract that you cannot escape because you don’t know if there is a cheaper alternative ?

Are you confused about energy plans? What are you doing to save on energy bills? If your behaviour has changed, what motivated it, the environment or $$??