Light Timers
One of the most obvious uses of electrical energy in homes is the lights, especially if they are switched on when they don't need to be. While the energy used by the bulbs themselves can be significantly reduced by switching to more modern technologies such as LED, there's still savings to be made by simply switching them off when they are not needed.
But the effort required to turn lights off in a house isn't always something you want to go through, especially if you've got a big house with kids and need to go through every room to ensure everyone has switched them off before going to work and school for the day. It's here that light timers can come in fantastically handy at automatically switching them off for you, not only saving you the effort but also taking one thing off your mind to make your day less stressful.
Light timers are great for other purposes too. They've been used by families for years as burglar deterrents, as they can switch lights on and off to mirror the patterns of people who use a house. If the potential burglar thinks someone is in they're not going to risk a confrontation with the owners.
The easiest form of light timer to install is one that fits into plugs, the disadvantage of course is this only works on plugged in lights such as lamps rather than those that work on switches. The investment into a solution that can turn your overhead lights in will be more expensive as it will usually require replacing your light switches throughout your home, but these can really save electricity and can add value to your property if you ever sell it.
If you're good at home improvement then fitting a switch will be no hassle at all, but for novices it's important to be safe when dealing with electrics and better to turn off all the power in your house before fitting a timer switch into the wall to replace your existing light switch.
It's also possible to get dimmer switches with timers installed, which can be great not only at saving energy when you only need a little light, for instance when watching TV in the evening, but also for creating a great atmosphere when you come home from a hard day's work. By not using the full brightness of the bulbs you'll generally save quite a bit on your energy bills as well as reducing carbon emissions.
If you're replacing your switches for the purpose of saving money you should first consider replacing your bulbs with more energy efficicent ones as generally this is a better energy saving method and generally requires less work and less outlay. Also newer energy efficient bulbs generally have much longer lifespans so you won't need to worry about replacing burnt out light bulbs anywhere near as often as you previously did. By spending a few hours replacing them today you could save many trips to the electrical store later to buy replacement light bulbs.