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on your breaker box there is a switch at the top that is your "main" it will turn off the whole breaker box.
your water heater, if it is a tank style water heater could be costing you $20-30 per month even when you are not home, have your land lord install a timer to turn it off about an hour before you want your last hot water (it stays hot in the tank for a few hours after being turned off), some hot water tanks also have a "vacation" switch that turns them off or to a much lower setting.
to learn to read your meter use Google.
your microwave is costing you around $2-5 per month just being pluged in, same with your clock radio, dvd player, your computer monitor, tv and other cathoray tube monitors are costing you as much as twice as much while they are plugged in.
on the electric bill it will tell you if it is a real reading or an estament, it will also tell you the meter reading that the bill is based off, if you want to be kind to your land lord about it tell them that you think the power company over charged you, or that you are trying to conserve more and that a look at the bill will help you in your quest.
my power company estimated my bill and it came up $25 higher then it would be if they read the meter, so we basically prepaid $25 for next month, I'm not going to fight it, it's $25 I can't spend early.
the meter for your house should be round just like the other meter, a photo of the two would be good to see.
your big users of power are, things that heat, things that cool, things that have soft buttons to turn them on or off or remotes to turn them on and off, things that have batteries (battery back up for computers) or things that charge, like cell phone chargers, and last of all things that have lights that are always on, like clocks on the microwave, or the display on the dvd player.
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