I have a theory. An average Joe's digital home must consist of at least three computers and one or more laptops. An average nerd's home on the other hand -- has to have at least 7 of those! If you do not agree with me, read on; if you do, you really would be shocked to find their electricity consumption (you should still read on).

Reality check after the jump...

The results are in. The verdict from PG&E says my Electricity bill dropped by $274.39. Phew! if only I knew about this awhile back. Hopefully, this information would be useful to somebody else.

Just to give you an idea of how crazy I feel at the moment to divulge the details of my successful mission to lower energy usage in my home.

Jolted by a huge PG&E bill, I went around an energy conservation effort by using these techniques.

After a lot of research all over the Internet I decided to spend couple of bucks (I'm in a $$$ saving mode, what am I doing spending more money?) to help me measure more accurately and scientifically rather than running from Circuit breaker to the electricity meter every now and then. The list came down to just three gadgets

When I received my electricity bill for January, I was in for a big shock! No way I was using that much of electricity all of a sudden. Or was I?

I asked my friendly neighbors. And friends, colleagues, sometimes even total strangers. Everybody seemed to be paying less than $100 every month. And here I was going poorer day by day by paying hefty electricity bills to PGE for all of last three years. Last month’s bill was just a wake-up call. Something was really wrong here!