The biggest offenders of wasting electric are “children” grown or ungrown. I’ve spent many years running around after my two switching off lights and computers in their bedrooms when they’ve gone out for the evening.

They’ve now got their own places, thankfully and our power bills have gone down.

you got it a bit backwards on “avoid buying red displays which consume more energy” though. red spectrum consumes least energy, being a lower frequency wave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum). green will consume a bit more, and blue – the most. regardless, the difference is probably negligible in case of something as little as an alarm-clock. i’d watch for efficiency of bigger items instead, like stoves, fridges, dryers, etc.

For our business usage, we have a TD Gold Elite. While they charge $99, they do pay back 1% in cash annually and also provide Auto Club coverage, which is essentially free auto towing service (I have used this twice, and feel we got more than our money’s worth there). While I don’t like paying the $99, we get way more back in rebates, and I no longer find myself wondering if it’s worth joining the CAA.

At the end of the day, my decision regarding credit cards has a lot to do with which bank we’re with. Since I never carry a credit card balance, to me it’s important to easily and quickly transfer the balance each month. I have found in the past that this isn’t always easy to do online if you’re transferring money to institutions you don’t bank with.

Natural gas for the heat and the water heater. Yes, if you use electric power for heat you can do the usual items to reduce your heating bill (turn down the heat, seal everything, heat only the rooms you use, etc).

Potato,

I agree that is a beef of mine too. I would personally like to see lower fixed rates and higher consumption rates to encourage people to reduce consumption.

SKgirl,

Like/hate. Yep, I know that feeling already. Everyone is screaming this week “you guys put up the rates by 13% for next year!” Yet they all forgot we didn’t have a rate increase last year and with a boom in population the only option is to use more natural gas to generate the power which is very expensive. *sigh*

Tim

P.S. Congrats on the new job, I work at the STel and it’s a great thing to work for a Crown, you’re really gonna like it(and hate it hahaha)

K

Back when I lived by myself in an apartment, I naturally did all the right stuff to save on electricity: turning devices off when not in use, CFLs, etc. My power bill was so low that the majority of it was the monthly admin charge. I always found it counterproductive to saving energy when my bills were hardly affected by how much I used (~$20 admin charge on a ~$30 power bill).

Now that I’m using more power in a larger house, etc., conservation measures do have some impact, but a good quarter-to-a-third of the bill is still the monthly admin charge (and no, they can’t just bill me annually — I asked).

For most families that’s probably not a factor, but it might be something to explore with your new employer (perhaps combine waiving the fixed fee, if you have one out there, with things like remote reporting meters or ToU metering).

One thing I did notice when I moved last time is that my power bill actually increased significantly and my friend told me it might be the old fridge, so I really need to check it out.