An unpublished survey results show that most refrigerators in Ghana uses more that 4kWh per day. In a month, 120kWh of the bills will be coming from the refrigerator alone. If we compare this to what happens in Europe and the US, the average is less than 2kWh a day and their refrigerators are even much bigger than ours. The reason for this is the use of inefficient refrigerators with worn out seals, and wrong placement of refrigerators in our homes. We push them in corners where they do not get ventilation and therefore draw more electricity than necessary. Many people start life with battery operated radios, progress gradually and end up with remote controlled appliances. The remote control is very convenient but some of the early types of these devices have standby power as high as 10W. If for example you have four appliances at home such as a TV, stereo, fan and an air-conditioner each with a standby power of 10W, that makes 40W standby power for a single house. That is equivalent to a 40W bulb burning in the house for a whole year. Standby power is an issue that must be tackled seriously in Ghana. Many countries have already enacted legislation limiting standby power to about 2W. Effective 30th November 2006, every air conditioner that is coming to Ghana must meet 2.8 EER and it must be labelled. The more stars the label has, the more efficient the air conditioner is. Whoever is selling must tell you what type of air conditioner it is, the cooling capacity, the manufacturer, the model, the type of refrigerant inside and the efficiency ratio. So check your labels for your appliances, they may just be the single most powerful reason for your inexplicable bills. Additional resources from: Energy crisis In Ghana, Drought, Technology, Policy?