2008 July | Alex Bowyer

Tips to reduce your electricity bill

Posted by Alex on 30 Jul, 2008 in Improvement | 0 comments

Things I learnt by using a CurrentCost meter

For the last month or so, my wife and I have been using a CurrentCost meter to track our electricity usage – with a view to helping the planet as well as the more direct benefit of reducing our electricity usage in the face of pending increased utility costs as part of the so-called “credit crunch”.

The meters cost around £40 and have a small box that clips onto the wire by your electricity meter (no wiring necessary). This box wirelessly transmits the current power usage to a display unit which can be anywhere in the house (We have it in the kitchen so we see it regularly) and displays your current usage in Watts. The display unit is programmed with the price you pay per kWh (typically 9p) so it can calculate what your cost is for today, this week or this month (if you continue the current level of usage)

Lots of people are getting into exporting the data to draw graphs and publish their usage stats online, and all manner of other interesting things. I haven’t got this deep into it yet, but I have learnt a great deal by becoming more aware of my own electricity usage. I thought I would share some of this knowledge in the form of some electricity saving tips.

1. Watts means pounds

One of the first benefits of using the meter is suddenly watts have a real tangible meaning.