Happy with Our Power Bill

I recently paid our electricity bill for Autumn. Despite being grief stricken at the time of receiving this bill, I was delighted to see that the amount due was lower than the previous bill. It was about $15 less! That’s the first time (in a long time) that our Autumn bill was lower than the Summer bill. M and I believe that this could be the result of turning off appliances at the wall when they are not being used. After watching a short TV segment on fire hazards of electrical appliances left on stand by in December last year, I promptly began to switch everything off at the wall when it was not being used. It was a hassle at first but now we just do it automatically. I do still wonder if doing so will shorten the life of certain appliances (e.g. computers and other entertainment equipment). We are finally going to get the old computer fixed this Friday. That may be a good time for me to ask if it is absolutely ok for me to turn the computer off at the wall every night.

A goal I set for this Winter is to severely decrease the use of the heater. Of course I will turn it on if it is absolutely needed but I would prefer to use it less than five times throughout the whole season. So far, we still haven’t turned it on for once. In previous years, I had to turn on the heater on bitterly cold days because of my little Guinea Pig but now that he is no longer with us, I think the two of us can do without. Let’s see if we can make it. I think I will faint if our electricity bill for Winter is even lower than the one for Autumn! Now, that’s a challenge!