Before you buy...

Switching your TV or hi-fi onto standby is unquestionably convenient, but it comes at a cost. According to the Energy Saving Trust, more than £900 million-worth of energy is wasted every year by appliances left on standby, but with the help of the latest energy monitors and stand-by savers you can slash your bills and keep mother nature happy.

Stand-by Savers remove the hassle of turning appliances off at the wall by cutting the power to anything left on standby. They range from simple timers that will shut down the power to your hair straighteners after 30 minutes, to multi-plug adaptors for your TV, set-top-box and DVD player. Some can be controlled by your existing remotes so you don't even need to get up off the sofa to be green. Before you buy, just check that your saver doesn't guzzle electricity (under 1W is good) and that it can handle the amperage of the the gadgets you plan to plug into it.

Energy monitors don't save you energy directly, but connect remotely to your mains electricity and calculate how much energy your home is using at any given time. This information is displayed on a monitor as £, kW of electricity or in amount of C02. Invest in a wireless system and you can carry your monitor from room to room, looking for appliances left on — if you turn off a light or shut down your computer you’ll see the figure fall (our tip: try the kettle). The wannabe 'mathletes' among you will love the energy monitors that can be hooked up to your computer via USB, so you can make graphs and charts with the data you've collated.

Chosen by Ideal Home