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As a student, utility bills can be a real headache considering you need money for food, books, transportation etc. Here are some tips on lowering your electricity bill so you have more to spend on other important areas.
A considerable amount of electric energy is used in lighting, refrigeration, cooking, water – heating and air conditioning. It is important to know how to operate these appliances more efficiently in order to reduce electricity consumption. Please, follow carefully the instructions given below and you can reduce your electrical bills considerably.
Computers, printers and typewriters used in offices also have low energy rating. However, if left on when not in use for a long time, could lead to high energy consumption. Switch them off when you are not using them.
Refrigerators and Freezers
Refrigerators run continuously for hours every day which means that they consume a lot of energy. It is therefore advisable to do the following;
- Buy energy efficient refrigerators. Let the yellow label and stars be your guide. The more the stars, the more efficient the fridge. Efficient fridges consume less electricity.
- In Ghana, ordinary inefficient fridge consumes on the average 1,200 kWh a year whereas an efficient 5 star fridge consumes averagely only 400kWh a year.
- If you replace one inefficient fridge that consumes 1200kWh/year with an efficient one that consumes 400 kWh/ year, you save about 800 kWh of electricity and 0.45 TC02 in a year.
- Do not position your fridge close to the wall; leave a space of about 30cm between the fridge and the wall. The cooling system at the back of the fridge needs a lot of air to perform efficiently.
- Do not position the fridge at where there are direct sun rays, or near heaters such as stoves
- Avoid frequent opening of the fridge’s door since every opening introduces warm air into the fridge and the fridge will require more energy to overcome the warm air.
- Periodically, put off the fridge and clean the dust accumulation on the cooling grill at the back to allow maximum air contact to ensure cooling.
- Defrost the freezer regularly. Ice buildup restrains the freezer’s ability to keep proper temperature thus making the freezer to work harder than necessary.
Microwave
A microwave oven reduces electricity used for Cooking by up to 70 per cent compared to an electric cooker. Use it to re heat food.
- Do not use the microwave oven to defrost food-stuff, because it will use more electricity; rather defrost foodstuff in the open overnight to conserve electricity.
- Allow free circulation of air in your oven. Place pans and containers so that they do not touch each other or the sides of the oven.
- When roasting or baking, avoid making frequent progress checks that entail opening the oven door, instead look through the oven door if need be. The oven’s temperature drops by about 10 degrees Celsius whenever the door is opened.
Electric Kettles / Water Heaters
Use the electric kettle to boil small quantities of water, not the electric cooker. It is cheaper to use the electric kettle to boil water rather than the electric cooker.
When boiling water use only the required amount of water. For instance, if you want one cup of tea, boil water that is just enough to cover the heating element.
Store hot water in thermos flask for later use. This helps save energy by avoiding constant use of the kettle.
Lighting
- Turn off lights that are not in use.
- Turn on security lights as late as possible and turn them off as early as possible. In the tropics, visibility becomes poor after 5:30am in most of the times. It is therefore a waste of electricity to turn on lights at 6pm and turn them off at 6am the following day. At least one hour savings a day is a lot in a year.
- Buy energy efficient lamps. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting Diode (LED) lamps are very efficient; very bright, consumes less energy, generates no heat and last longer than incandescent lamps. In deciding what CFL to buy, let the yellow label and the stars be your Guide. The more the stars, the more efficient it is.
- Do not buy CFL that has no label on it.
- If you replace one inefficient 60 watt incandescent bulb with a 15 watt CFL and use it for 5hours a day, you save about 82 kWh of electricity and 0.05 Tc02 in a year.
- The (ballast) choke in the fluorescent light should be removed if the lamp is gone dead. The choke consumes up to 11 watt if it remains in the system.
- Use brighter colours for rooms since they do reflect light and ensure better illumination than dull colours which tend to absorb light.
Ironing
Electric irons, like electric water heaters are high electricity consuming appliances.
Do all your ironing in bulk. Each time you put off the iron for it to cool and put it on again, you draw a lot of energy that could have ironed one shirt.
Make sure you are ready to iron before switching on the iron in order not to waste too much time and energy. For example do not watch television whilst you do ironing since you are likely to lose concentration and waste time unnecessarily.
Television
- Turn off TV and video sets that are not being watched. Children especially are likely to leave a set on when called outside to play.
- Do not switch on the TV at the same time that the radio or Hi-Fi system has been switched on. Listening is ineffective at this point. Effectively, a TV can be watched by selecting specific programmes rather than leaving it on continuously.
Fan
The work of a fan is to turn the air in a particular area so that the place will not be too warm. It is therefore important that the area be well ventilated to enable the fan function efficiently. If the following steps are followed, one can enjoy the fan to its maximum;
Open windows to allow more into the room so that the fan can circulate it well to lower the temperature. Circulation of trapped air in closed room by fans lead to warming of rooms;
Avoid the use of incandescent lamps as they produce heat. The work of the fan will not be fully felt as the air in the room will be warmed by the incandescent lamp.
Air-Conditioning
Air-conditioners consume a lot of electricity as they are common in offices and run for long hours. To reduce consumption of electricity, the follow steps should be followed:
Buy efficient air-conditioners. Look out for the yellow label and the black stars. The more the stars, the more efficient the application, no label no good!
The room should be well sealed and well curtained to avoid warm air entering the room through vent and conduction.
If you are going out for more than 30 minutes, the air conditioners should be turned off.
Mobile Phone Charger
Switch off the mains if you are not charging the mobile phone. A mobile phone charger plugged in but not charging consumes 0.048kWh/day which amount to 7.20kWh/year
Source: www.ecgonline.info