The latest official figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) could provide insight into how energy saving aspirations across the UK have affected power consumption. In its second quarter 2010 report, DECC notes a 24 per cent fall in primary electricity consumption across the country.

Many simple methods can be applied to save at least 5-10 percent of electricity consumption, for example turning off electrical equipment when use is not necessary or operating air conditioners at suitable temperatures. However, many companies still ignore these simple methods.

"The total electricity bills that all households in Vietnam have to pay is VND5,200 billion/year. If each household just saves 10% of their electricity consumption, the amount saved will be a really big number.

Electricity consumption was reduced by 7 to 10% compared to 2008; in the first 3 months of 2010, 5% of electricity consumption was cut down, compared with the same period in 2009. Those are the first benefits that energy efficiency methods have brought to the Landmark building in Ho Chi Minh City.

During the recent heat wave, electricity consumption has increased sharply: on 19th June, 37 million KWh was used, on 20th June, almost 40 million kWh, increasing by nearly 40% over the same period in 2009. According to EVN Hanoi, the sudden growth mainly gathered in daily life consumption. Meanwhile, in other provinces electricity consumption were deeply reduced - 30% over the same period in 2009 because every week, these provinces have electricity outage in 2-3 days.

2009 statistics from Ministry of Industry and Trade show that Vietnam’s rate of growth in electricity consumption was 2.45 times greater than GDP growth rate. Consumption in industry – construction sector accounted for about 38%, civil 36.8%, transportation 20%, the rest in service and agriculture.

You plug the appliances into the sensors, and the sensors into your home’s wall sockets. The sensors then relay each appliance’s electricity consumption to an Internet-connected router, via Zigbee, the RF standard crafted for appliances and other devices around the home. You can then view a graphical and numerical chart that shows how much that Vornado air purifier is costing.

Latest figures from SP Services show that the average household electricity consumption per month from January to April this year was about 430kWh, 1% lower compared with the same period last year.