SPONSORED POST
Brought to you by EcoSwitch
This house we’re renting has to be the best one The Scientist, Curly and I have ever rented – except for the screaming hot water pipe that leads to Curly’s bathroom, the pipe that the landlord just won’t fix. If you don’t know what a screaming pipe sounds like, watch a video of actor Chris Tucker singing (see below)!
We are its first tenants since the owners moved out. It’s spacious and has a reverse cycled air conditioner in the main living area and a backyard with enough lawn for a soccer game. It’s also close to several parks, a lake and the beach. However, if we’re not careful, this beautiful, modern house can cost us not just an arm and a leg, but more. Let me explain.
You see, the owners thought it would be great to have four lights in the ceiling in the main living area where the kitchen, dining room and family room exist in open space. Fine, we’ve learned to turn them off and only switch the light on for the area we’re sitting in. But Curly doesn’t understand this, and so he comes home from school and because the blinds are closed and the house is dark he switches all the lights on as he walks through his kingdom.
To fix this, we first changed all the original bulbs to energy saving bulbs. Now when Curly obliviously leaves lights on we don’t worry as much because the bulbs use less power. When we can get away from what we were up to we’ll make the effort and switch them off on our way to the other side of the house. Easy peasy.
Next, we refused to install a television antenna in the entertainment room. There’s one already in the family room and that’s the room where Curly is allowed to eat, drink, throw up and watch the only two channels he’s allowed to – the ABC channels for kids. The Scientist and I don’t watch commercial television channels. When we need to watch anything we go to the entertainment room. Based on experience, if we had put an antenna in there, we’d be spending hours during the evenings with two televisions on at the same time. One for kiddy stuff and the other for grown-ups. Waste of funds we don’t have.
Although my eye surgeon uncle would get upset over this one, I turn the lights off when I’m watching something, be it on the television or the tablet. I just can’t stand the brightness, it ruins the experience. Since I like to watch marathon episodes of my favorite series, I could be in the entertainment room for more than three hours at a time. So turning off the light saves me quite a lot on my bills.
The next thing we did was decide to spend more time outdoors on the weekend. This could be going to the shops, the indoor playground, the park or just for a walk. Then that would mean turning computers and televisions off and now that it’s winter we’d save quite a bit running the air conditioner.
This next one is interesting, something new and can help you cut back on your next bill. We turn off the power board in one of the rooms that use the most power: the entertainment room. One power board that groups: one gigantic plasma television, a Blu-ray DVD player, a digital entertainment hub that contains all our videos and music, Curly’s video gaming console the wireless speakers, a lamp and occasionally even the PlayStation and the laptop. This power board was never turned off since the day we moved into the house because the socket in the wall is too far behind the massive television. One would need to stretch one’s back and arms to reach the socket. We’ve felt guilty because we knew that when you leave electronics and appliances on stand by they are constantly sucking electricity. In order to save some cash in that room alone, we’ve obtained an EcoSwitch® (an easy reach power switch).
We plug it into the wall, plug the power board into it and use its long cord and switch to control the power board. What it does is cut off the electricity to the power board as if you had switched it off on the wall! Basically, you don’t need to bend down, stretch your muscles or try and access odd places under desks or behind the washing machine to completely turn off electronics and appliances. No more standby! And if we want to we can also use the EcoSwitch® with single items. Check it out below.
If you would like to have your own, follow Silly Mummy by signing up to receive the notice when we host the giveaway soon for two winners to receive two each, valued at $19.95 each per item!
If you have any tips on saving power, please leave a comment below, we love to share!
There are many more reasons to use an EcoSwitch®.
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Listen to Chris Tucker sing! I warn you. Cover your ears!
This post was proudly bought to you by EcoSwitch, which turns your connected devices off 100%, which means helping prevent house or office fires, reduce wastage of energy, saves you plenty of money and can help make your appliances live longer! We were sent the product for review plus two pairs for giveaway. Keep an eye out!