One of the regular costs that families have to face today is the cost of electric power.  Electrical bills can be reduced by making sure that electrical appliances are switched off or disconnected from power sources while not in use.

How many times have you left your living room lights on while you slept? How many times do you switch off your television set by remote and effectively leave the gadget connected on to power all night and all day when not actually in use?

Whenever you leave your gadgets turned on fully, turned off but not switched off at the wall, left in standby mode, left in power saving mode, you are actually increasing your bills. Such gadgets include, computer, chargers, radio systems, play stations, kitchen appliances, air conditioners and electric kettles, among others.

Any electrical device that has an external power supply connected to it will still use electricity while powered off.

Also any electrical appliances that have a clock, LED, light, or LCD panel on them will also still use electricity while turned off. These include microwaves, coffee makers, TVs, VCR’s, DVD players etc.

Also any devices that have a standby or sleep power modes will still consume electricity. Most TV’s and decoders never actually turn off; they just go into a standby mode. Computer monitors and computers are the same.

Most computers will still keep power to the motherboard for different functions such as, modems, USB hubs, etc.

The biggest culprit of electricity usage on a daily basis is the refrigerator. In many homes, refrigerators make up 80 percent of the daily usage of electricity.

One way of reducing this power usage to make sure the refrigerator is not up against an outside facing wall. Keep the fridge as full as possible, clean out beneath and behind the fridge every month or so.

And also don’t turn the knob in the fridge to the highest level especially if you don’t need ice cold water, drinks or other products. Old refrigerators which have worked for over 10 years use up more electricity cooling air, so in such a case you are better off with a new one which uses less power.

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