Well, I am trying to find some nice lampshades that would be good for my lounge. My current ones are sort of Italian stlye upshades that fit up against the ceiling. Normal incandescent bulbs fit fine, but the new florescent ones do not, they are a bit too long. The smaller 11 watt ones do, but don't give a strong enough light.
I tried some large Chinese hat style ones but they didn't look right, so ended up putting them in the kitchen.

Oh well, will keep searching for just the right ones!

CB

I turn everything that's not in use off now. Stand-by mode and switches that haven't been turned off burn a lot of power over the course of a year.

The only lights that burn in this house are the ones in the room that we are in, and then all lights are on their own switch so we can just have one burning, rather than a room full.

I do mostly cold washes.

We have an oil fin heater but then decided to purchase a gas fired heater (the ones that use a bbq-style gas tank)

Whereas we'd burn the oil fin heater for two hours or more in the winter, we find that the gas burner is on for about half an hour and the room stays warm even after it is turned off. We can't believe how good a buy this has been.

A tank of gas lasts us for about 6 weeks and if you get your gas from the right place it can work out a lot cheaper. Where we go we get discounts on some tanks and a free tank full after buying so many. I'm sure there are even better deals to be had but we're happy with our lot.

What gas isn't used up we simply use for the barbeque.

Our electricity bill (for 2 people) averages between $104 to $150 and that's with me using my clothes drier all year round.