Advice about turning off lights is not wrong, but lights are rarely the problem. In a typical Nigerian home the money goes to cooling, heating water, and the fridge. Start there.
Where it actually goes
- Air conditioning — by a wide margin, if you run one
- Water heater — enormous consumption for short use
- Refrigerator / freezer — modest draw, but running every hour
- Electric iron, kettle, microwave — high draw, short bursts
- Lighting, TV, phone charging — genuinely minor
What actually saves money
- Set the AC to 24–25°C, not 16°C. Every degree lower costs roughly 5–8% more. The room does not cool faster at 16 — it just runs longer.
- Service the AC. A clogged filter can add a fifth to its consumption.
- Switch the water heater off between uses. Leaving a 3kW heater on all day to shower twice is the most expensive habit in most homes.
- Keep the fridge full and the coils clean. A full fridge holds temperature; dusty coils make it work harder.
- Iron in one session. Most of the energy goes into heating the plate.
- Replace remaining incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Small per bulb, but permanent.
- Unplug idle chargers and set-top boxes. Small, but genuinely free.
- Fix the freezer door seal. If a note slips out when the door is shut, the seal has gone.
- Track your recharges. You cannot manage what you do not measure — see Spending Insights.
Track before you change
Buy a few weeks the way you normally do, then change one thing and compare. Your purchase history makes this straightforward, and it beats guessing.
