I just found a terrific site that shows you how to calculate the power usage of all your appliances.  I was wondering whether our TV is a guzzler as often I tune it to its radio stations and listen to that.  Of course it is double power usage as it needs the tuner plus the monitor.  Also, as I work around the clock, I leave my computer on all day, just turning it off when I sleep. Heaters can use a lot of power.

But check out this site as I haven’t found a better one anywhere.

Even for the mathematically challenged this is easy to work out and is explained very clearly.  Elsewhere on My Green Australia we have listed tips for reducing usage, but it is pretty scary for me to realise that my 3500 watt coffee maker uses almost as much as a plasma telly.  No wonder it initially blew out my 250 watt transformer!

Well, I am not going to stop using it, but I never leave it on while not making coffee or tea and we have solar power.

Of course, solar doesn’t give me the right to waste the power I harvest and we are just as careful as ever with usage.  But a little less hard on ourselves on hot days as we do now use the air conditioners, especially at night when it never seems to cool down.  The water from the air con goes on the garden.  So that is some saving at least!