Electricity bill doubled? Cut it by half again!

Bankelele's recent post entitled "Electric Shock" generated a lot of interesting reactions and it became clear that electricity bills of most Kenyans have doubled over the past few months due to an increase in fuel costs and other charges. President Kibaki promised today to influence the electricity generating and transmitting companies to lower their prices. 

But let's not wait for that, let's start saving now! KPLC's own electricity saving tips will not help us much in this respect ("never use your cooker as a room heater", sic) - so here are some more com
prehensive tips on how to cut your monthly electricity bill:
1. Audit yourself. A home energy audit is a way to inventory your home’s energy use, where energy is lost, and where it can be saved. You can do an energy audit yourself or get a professional to do it for you. Many utility companies in other countries offer home and business energy audits for free. There is nothing like that in Kenya yet; so KPLC, are you listening??? But please don't send us auditors telling us not to use our cookers as room heaters...
2. Don't use heaters in those cold July and August months. Put on an extra pullover instead.
3. Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs).
   
4. When looking for new appliances, seek out the most energy-efficient models.
5. Switch to solar. A solar electric system can provide all the energy needed for a typical home (and possibly more).
   
6. Use an instant heater for your hot shower instead of that old-fashioned, lazy boiler or storage water heater. Or even better: take a cold shower.
7. Turn off lights and other devises when they’re not needed.
   
8. Electronics that sleep on a standby setting continue to pull a current even when “turned off.”
9. “Wall warts,” those clunky AC adaptors on many power cables, pull current, too, so those should be taken out of the wall when not in use. Your best bet is a “smart” power strip, or a power strip that can be turned off at night, etc.
   
10. Switch to a laptop. A laptop uses far less energy than a desktop.
    
11. Put your computer in Sleep / Standby / Hibernate mode when not in use or switch it off completely. Note that a screensaver that shows any image on the screen doesn't save any energy at all; you save energy only if the monitor goes dark by going to sleep.
12. Do the laundry in cold or warm water, never hot.
13. Always charge your mobile phone, laptop, batteries, torches, etc at work, in restaurants, in public places instead of at home.
14. Read books instead of reading blogs, surfing the Web, watching TV or playing electronic games. 
    
15. And last but not least, some people pedal their own power.
    
Any more ideas for cutting that bill?
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