Stuart Hickox, founder and president of One Change, says using a power bar on items like TVs can help avoid 'vampire power' -- power sucked from small appliances when not in use.

Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa homeowners can cut their electricity bills by as much as $750 a year by taking half a dozen simple steps to reduce consumption, says the man who introduced the city to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Stuart Hickox was the brain behind Project Porchlight, which delivered 250,000 free "CFL" bulbs to Ottawa households a few years ago. His organization, One Change, has since distributed more than three million bulbs in cities across North America.

Hickox is brimming with ideas for homeowners distraught by estimates that electricity rates could rise by more than 40 per cent between now and 2015. And none of them involves doing laundry in the dead of night.