I would like to share some practical ideas and steps that will help you to save electricity and consequently save money on electricity in your home. Determining ways to save electricity in your home is not difficult.

Often the smaller steps are the ones that help us in conserve electricity around the house. The result is we start to save money as well just by accomplishing a few actions.

As a starter, I think is it important to note just why we should be saving electricity in general. There are the obvious answers such as to save money at hoe by reducing energy costs.

That is an important one especially for those families where their budgets or finances are being pressured by factors perhaps beyond their control.

There are other reasons why we should all be more aware and take efforts to save electricity when ever possible. One such reason would be understanding that producing electricity is dependent on other energy sources.

With electricity essentially being one of the more vital energy sources for the world, we have to consume other energy sources to produced and satisfy the increasing electricity demands of consumers. These other energy sources used to generate electricity can be either renewable or non-renewable.

Unfortunately, the majority of electricity produced today is not necessarily coming from renewable energy sources. Stating an example, the US DOE reported that in 2006, about 49% of electricity was generated fro coal and about 20% from natural gas.

These figures have probably changed somewhat but the key message is a majority of energy used to produce electricity is not coming from renewable resources. This implies that we should be considering more carefully energy conservation with respect to electricity.

There are numerous ways to save electricity at home and I encourage you to check out the resources mentioned later.

Before you get started, most actions to save money on electricity relate to changing somewhat behaviours. When we speak about behaviors it normally applies to all the members of the house.

Therefore, in order to save electricity over the long term it is important that people understand the importance of saving electricity and then commit to doing their part.

Lighting in the typical house amounts to approximately 12% of the annual energy costs of a home. I don't know about you but I find myself repeating quite often to turn off the lights.

What's the problem? For starters, normal incandescent lighting is not very energy efficient compared to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's).

When your purchase and install Energy Star qualified CFL’s in your home you can expect a fairly significant electricity savings. CFL's are know to use about 75% less electricity that standard incandescent bulbs.The are also know for lasting several time longer than incandescent light bulbs.

Energy saving light bulbs (CFL's) can be used in about all types of lamps and fixtures these days, and also outdoors. I refer you to this article on the energy saving light bulbs..

In the average home, about 12% of yearly energy costs are related to the production of hot water for your home.

You can therefore save electricity or energy overall by making this process as efficient as possible.

There are three main action points to consider here:

• Ensure that you hot water heater temperature is set to 120 degree F, or some temperature in which everyone still is comfortable when showering, etc.

• Repair an leaking faucets in you home as soon as they are seen.

• Install low flow faucet and especially shower heads throughout your home.

• Purchase and install a hot water insulating blanket for your hot water heater.

• Consider replacing your existing hot water heater with an Energy Star Water Heater. Only recently has Energy Star began to rate hot water heaters for the energy efficiency.

There are many ways to save electricity around the house or apartment for that matter. Additionally, it is not at all very difficult to learn how to save electricity, nor apply the various tips for saving electricity.

If I was to highlight one important obstacle or challenge if you will, if is changing people behaviors around the household. So one of your first steps is to get everyone on board when it comes to taking actions to save money on electricity.