There are many theories and ideas emerging on how to save electricity in your home and cut back on the electric bill, but many of them are unrealistic for most people to keep up in the long run simply because they interfere too much with daily life. Yet, you shouldn't give up just yet! There are some ways to cut back on that bill without completely derailing your daily obligations and plans.

If you have already implemented a lot of the typical advice that you hear about saving electricity such as replacing all your light bulbs with energy saving bulbs and chasing your children around the house to ensure they cut out the lights when they leave a room, you are probably looking for something more substantial that is reasonable to implement into your busy life.

The following tips should get you thinking creatively about how your family can learn how to save electricity without giving up things you love (such as your sanity!).

First, let's deal with the very good advice that you unplug all appliances in your home that are not being used on a daily basis. It is true that everything that is plugged into the wall is sucking up electricity, but this advice has been taken to the extreme by some people these days. Some people are saying you should unplug every appliance and electronic component in your entire house, including the living room TV! This is how to save electricity, but only if you have a lot of time to start plugging and unplugging every appliance or TV set as you need it. This is unrealistic for most homes, especially families who have children. Do keep things unplugged if they are not being used on a daily basis, but you don't need to plug and unplug the TV five times a day!

The reason why this problem exists is that many electronic equipments and appliances draw what is known as standby power even when they are not in use, effectively wasting electricity. The good news is that there is one device called a smart power strip that can help with saving electricity for a group of electronic devices such as a TV and its peripherals. A smart power strip, just like an ordinary power strip, has multiple outlets. Here one of the outlets is a controlling outlet whereas the rest of the outlets are controlled outlets. To set it up, you simply plug the TV into the controlling outlet. The peripherals such as the cable box, DVD player, VCR player, game console etc are plugged into the controlled outlets. Now whenever you switch off the main TV set, the power strip detects the reduced current draw in the controlling outlet and cuts off the power supply to the controlled outlets. This switches all the peripherals off so that the peripherals are no longer drawing standby power, saving you electricity as a result. You can use a smart power strip with a computer and its peripherals too.

Another way to save electricity with one quick action is to cover your hot water heater and water pipes with insulation. They make blankets of insulation designed to wrap tightly around the water heater, sealing in the heat so it doesn't have to work as hard to create hot water for your home.

Yet, you cannot learn how to save electricity without becoming more conscious in your every day actions. Consider the following small changes you can make that will really add up to savings over time:

1. Use hot tap water cautiously. The water heater has to work hard to heat up the water every time you wash your hands or do minor activities.

2. Instead of using the large kitchen oven, use a smaller toaster oven or microwave that uses less energy when possible.

3. Hang your clothes out to dry or at least purchase an energy saving dryer. These machines suck up a lot of electricity!

4. Use motion sensors to control how often outdoor lights turn on, or hook them up to a timer.

Finally, believe it or not, but dishwashers actually use more energy and cost you more money than washing your dishes by hand! If you really want to learn how to save electricity, do your daily chores without the help of modern day machinery if at all possible.