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With the electricity rates skyrocketing, it is important to be mindful of our electricity usage at home. We have to explore all avenues where we can save electricity costs. With that in mind, here are a few practical electricity saving tips that we could easily implement in our households.
Turn Off Your Appliances Completely When Not In Use
Always remove plugs from electric sockets. Don’t leave those appliances plugged in even if they’re not being used.
In this age of remote controls and other switch unfriendly devices. We just take it for granted that we have already switched off our appliances (TVs, Airdonditioners) using the remote. The truth is, these appliances are still using up electricity and wastes a considerable amount of energy. By switching off at the main power button, or even the socket, we could be save a lot of money and electricity.
Those appliances left left on standby actually use up to 85% of the energy they would use if fully switched on.
Minimize Using Your Tumble Dryer
Do you know that electric tumble dryers are commonly the second biggest energy user in the home, after the refrigerator? Gives you pause doesn’t it? Although they’re not used that much, they still consume a whole lot of energy when switched on.
So if you have a backyard, it makes a lot of sense to be drying your clothes outside whenever possible instead of using your tumble dryer.
If you must use your dryer, e.g. during bad weather, make sure that your clothes go through your washing machine’s fast spinner so they’re as dry as possible. This will significantly lessen the time needed to dry them and therefore saves electricity.
Optimize Your Household Lighting
A major portion of the electricity bill in a lot of households come from lighting. This is one area where we could save some electricity. The first thing to do is to replace those traditional bulbs with energy saving light bulbs. These energy saving light bulbs work in the same way as fluorescent lights which are proven to be energy efficient.
These energy saving light bulbs differ from the traditional light bulbs in the sense that while traditional light bulbs turn energy into heat thereby expending a lot of energy, energy efficient light bulbs have tube coatings that blog brightly as electric currents pass through gas in the tube.
True, energy saving light bulbs cost more than traditional light bulbs but all that cost is easily recovered by the amount of electricity they save. These types of bulbs last 10 times longer than traditional bulbs and use up 4 times less energy.
But more importantly whenever you leave a room, always turn off the light. This is a good thing to make a habit.
Use Solar Powered Garden Lights
One movement that’s really building momentum is the use of solar energy for your home. You don’t need to be a science geek to implement some solar projects on your own. You could start with using solar lights in your garden for example. Solar lights are readily available in most hardware stores these days. These type of lights do not require special electric fittings. They contain solar cells which convert the sun’s energy into electricity. They story energy during the day, and use the stored energy to lighten up your garden during night time.
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Get tips – here are some more that our family has used to cut our electric usage by 50%:
1. Use cold water when washing cloths.
2. Turn off the heated dry option on your dishwasher.
3. Turn down your water heater (most homes can set theirs to 120 degrees)
4. Consider upgrading to front load washer. These types of washers use a lot less water and practically spin cloths dry.
Our families goal when we started was to reduce our total energy usage by 40%. We discovered it was easier than we thought and we beat our original goal, and are still finding ways to reduce our energy usage.
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