Home energy is a major part of every household. Ever since the meter system started, people have become more conscious of energy consumption. This became even more pronounced when the framework of the stepped tariff came in. The thrust is now to consume 200 kWh or less within a month. Anything beyond that becomes quite expensive. There are ways you can reduce your energy consumption at home though. ZERA, in commemoration of Energy Efficiency Month, has decided to share some tips to become energy efficient at home. I will also be randomly adding some additional points to the buttress.

Lighting

ZERA underscores that you must use as much natural lighting as possible. Your goal should be to minimize as much as possible the need for artificial lighting. They also advised that you must always ensure that you switch off lights when no one is in a room. I think this also applies when sleeping, it is not necessary to sleep with the lights on. (To add, it is said that on average you save roughly 1.2 cents per every hour a light bulb is switched off). You must use LED energy saver bulbs for indoor use and LED floodlights for outdoor use. This is because they use 75 per cent less energy and also last longer (at least 5 years). They also emphasised the importance of not using fluorescent tubes for lighting.

Refrigeration

You are advised to not open the refrigerator doors unnecessarily. This also means you must not keep the doors open for too long. You must additionally make sure that the airtight seals are intact. Before placing food into the refrigerator, if it is hot make sure it cools off first. Regularly defrost manual-defrost freezers and refrigerators. The build-up of frost has the effect of reducing the refrigerator’s energy efficiency. Thus it will end up consuming more energy. Another addition I can throw in here is that you must ensure the refrigerator is operating at the optimum temperatures. It is said that the optimum refrigerator temperature is 5 degrees Celsius. The optimum freezer temperature is -18 degrees Celsius. For any 1 degree Celsius, you add, roughly 6 percent more energy is consumed.

Laundry Or Ironing

Cultivate a habit of ironing clothes in large batches. This helps avoid energy losses or wastages through reheating. This is because an iron takes energy to heat up and this energy is wasted if the iron is used for frequent ironing of a few minutes at a time. It is also smart to iron low-temperature fabrics first to reduce warm-up times. Always remember – never iron wet clothes as that consumes more energy. Some more tricks I use you can also use: do not twist your clothes and use hangers when air-drying them. This reduces creases which in turn reduces the ironing effort needed.

Home Appliances

Always switch of switches (SOS) – I remember this from my woodwork classes in early high school. It was mainly for safety purposes but it does also save power. ZERA encourages you to switch off all electrical home appliances. This refers to TVs, radios, sound systems, DVD players, and so on. When not in use you must switch off and unplug them from the wall sockets. In case you did not know, electrical devices with standby modes, consume some energy if switched off but still plugged in. I know there is an argument to say the energy consumed is negligible but it is something.

Those are the useful tips that ZERA recently decided to share. The principle is simple – right in your own home, you have the power to save electricity and money. Save electricity, reduce the load on the national power grid, be energy efficient, and use clean energy sources.