I am constantly harassing my husband to switch off unused and standby lights in our house. Wherever he goes in our house he seems to leave a trail of lit, vacant rooms and a plethora of standby lights on.

The one light he especially loves to leave on is his computer monitor light, which I religiously turn off nightly.

So, he did make me giggle when he sent me this article about the Intelliplug. It’s a plug that contains a switching system that automatically switches off attached peripherals when the PC is turned off. In other words, when the PC is turned off at the end of the night then monitor and speakers will automatically power-off too. A PC monitor on standby overnight can use the same amount of energy as a microwave would need to cook six dinners. Although, my husband denies this

Anyway, the Intelliplug is available in the UK but not here yet. Hopefully, it is on its way – maybe in time for Christmas. Or maybe there is something out there already in Australia, which I don’t know about yet?

Last weekend my family and I visited some interesting places during Sustainable House Day. This year there were so many houses on offer, it was difficult to choose which ones to visit — our time was a bit limited because we had a four year old and a small baby with us.

We chose the Hawkesbury EarthCare Centre, an owner-builder house constructed from interlocking concrete blocks and a new house using many clever environmental elements.

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I’m really looking forward to next weekend because it’s Sustainable House Day (September 13-14). Finally, I’m going to be in Sydney to enjoy some houses in my area – and this year there seems like quite a lot.

A few years back I was in Canberra so I checked out a few houses there. The one thing that amazed me with the houses there was how cold it was outside, but how toasty warm (with no heating) it was inside due to solar passive designs and thermal mass. The houses also gave me some good ideas of what I could do in my own house.

The event is happening across Australia and New Zealand so check out some houses in your area for some good ideas and inspiration.

If you do, please tell us about the places you visited in the comments section below.