My recent bloghopping led me to AhKong.net’s post of how to save money in electricity bills in Malaysia. The post recommends that you use a power-saving gadget to lower the cost. The gadget itself costs around RM350, which I’m sure is a good investment in the long run if the gadget does work.

However, there is an easier and FREE way to save in electricity bills. It’s a technique that I use and works without fail, doesn’t require any gadget, and applicable wherever you are in the world.

The key is to eliminate what is called “phantom power”, whereby any appliance or charger left plugged into an electric socket, even though switched off and not in use, continually uses bits of electricity. An accumulation of these phantom power are still counted towards your electricity bill and causes you to have to pay extra for energy you’re not utilizing in the first place.

So, how do you eliminate phantom power? Easy. Just unplug your appliances and chargers once you’re done. That’s it! The only appliance I leave on 24/7 is my refrigerator. If you read my post concerning my experience eliminating phantom power, you’d be motivated to do so yourself, since I saved almost 25% off my bill, the same amount that the power-saving gadget claims to help you save.

Sounds good, yeah?

If you don’t watch Oprah, then you should. A lot of times, you’ll get practical and practicable gems of advice on living your life better, just by watching the show. One particular show on going green caught my attention, and in it Sheryl Crow and her friend Laurie David mentioned about

… eliminating “phantom power” on the (tour) bus. If any charger or appliance is left in an outlet, it continues to use power-even if it’s turned off. “Not only are you using energy you don’t need to be using, but it goes on your energy bill,” Sheryl says.

Once I heard that, I thought yeah, I kinda know or not know about that fact already, but I doubt I’ll save much just by unplugging. Then Simran Sethi went on and stated that doing so will actually lower your energy bill by up to 40%! I scrunched my nose and went REALLY?! Still, I decided to do just that. Right after the show, I roamed around my little apartment and started unplugging all the appliances that weren’t used, and I’d do the same and switched off all lights and whathavenots — save for the fridge and the computer plugs in my brother-in-laws’ room — every time before I leave the house.

Yesterday, after around two weeks down the road, I received my electricity bill. Guess what? They’re right! I saved 25% on just unplugging my appliances! That is a very big deal for me, because I spend approximately RM200.00 a month on electricity, and now it’s down to RM145.00 — I could buy two months’ worth of my prepaid mobile phone credits with the RM55 leftover; I could have saved more than RM600 a year and buy me a round-trip ticket to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore for my annual shopping spree! I was only around two weeks of practicing this energy-saving method, so I think this is just an amazing result.

Another Oprah show featuring David Bach was also an eye-opener for me, but that’s a story for another day.