The advancements in technology nowadays are phenomenal which can be beneficial for ways on how to save energy. New electronic gadgets come on to the market almost weekly. So, if you can afford it, why don’t you just get the newest gadget every time it hits the market? However, this is a double edged sword. Even though most of the newest devices are designed to be more energy efficient, the price tag on these devices is really high. So, does it all balance out in the end.
The typical family would spend about $1700 annually on electricity. And would you believe me if I told you didn’t even make use of a good portion of the electricity you are paying for. In other words, you are wasting energy and consequently money.
Who or what is to blame for this?
Well, there are two suspects. Firstly, your new high tech gadgets take part of the blame, while you take the other portion. You see, most devices nowadays are on, or consume energy, without being on. Do you know what I mean? Luckily, since we are now aware of this, we can do a lot to change this, and it doesn’t take much effort, only a little willpower. And if you read this, it’s all pretty obvious.
1) Turn off all appliances that you are not using. Switch off the television if you are not using it. And I don’t mean switch it off, I mean switch it off at the socket. Ditto for your stereo and anything that has a standby button. You see, standby buttons are evil, they allow your appliance to suck energy even though they are switched “off”. OK, the amount consumed when in standby mode is small, but over a year this adds up.
2) When not at home, switch off your heating or cooling system. Either keep it on a low setting or switch it off totally when you are away. You are not using it anyway, so why let it run? You are probably well aware how much energy heating or cooling systems consume, yet people still tend to leave these on when leaving the house. Use timers to program when the heating or cooling system should be activated. This at least allows the system to switch itself on to allow you to come back to a house with a comfortable thermal environment.
3) The sun has been giving us warmth since we have been on planet earth. And in these days with all the technology around we should not let this free source of warmth go to waste. If it is a nice sunny day, why not let the sun in to warm the house. Like I said, it is free so open your drapes and let the sun shine in. Obviously you should close the drapes at night to keep the heat inside.
4) Even though they are more expensive than the traditional lights we are used to, try to convert to LEDs. As mentioned, they do cost more, but produce a better light, last longer and only use a fraction of the electricity a light bulb uses.
5) Try not to use warm water when washing your clothes. Washing powders nowadays are strong enough to effectively clean your clothes in cold water. And, when drying clothes, try to dry them on the clothes line as much as possible and let the sun and wind dry them.
There are lots of things you can do to effectively use electricity. We just have to become more aware of what we are doing. Let your imagination run wild. You should not deny yourself to use the electricity that you need, just use it more wisely and you will see dramatic results.
