Reduce your electricity consumption with these energy conservation tips Po
If you pay the hydro bill directly, or if it is included in your rent or you are environmentally conscious, here are my tips to lower your hydro bills, most of which I have enacted, cutting my usage from about 13 or 14 kwh per day down to about 6 kwh (Or a reduction from over 400 kwh per month to under 250):
1. Turn off lights when not in use. Use "task lighting" rather than lighting the whole room unnecessarily for close work.
2. Replace incandescent lamps, (ie. regular light bulbs) with compact fluorescent lights. While more expensive to purchase, (prices continue to drop and they are now under $4 each in packages of 2 to 6 lamps.) they pay for themselves with time, taking 1/4 of the power and having a life of 7 to 10 times a long. They also generate much less heat which is a big bonus during the summer. You will get full life expectancy out of these lamps in open fixtures where the air can circulate and you will get a shorter life in a fully enclosed light fixture due to somewhat higher temperatures lowering the life of the internal electronic circuitry.
NOTE: do NOT use fluorescent lamps where it can get wet or in places of very high humidity like bathrooms because you do not want moisture getting into the electronics.
3. If you are going to use incandescent lamps, (ie. regular light bulbs,) use them with a light dimmer, so that when you don't need as much light you can dim the lights and use less power.
4. Dust your lamps and light fixtures with the power off. Even a thin layer of dust reduced light levels.
5. Unless absolutely necessary, use a fan rather than an air conditioner during the summer. Of course if you have asthma or other respiratory problems, a heart condition, or are a senior, your health is most important and you should continue to use your air conditioner. But you can always decide to lower the settings on the air conditioner from high to medium or low and set the temperature a bit higher.
6. Use window shades to reduce or block sunlight and heat during the summer, particularly if you have windows that receive direct sunlight.
7. Computers and particularly laser printers can really run up your power bills. Keep your printer turned off using the switch on the printer, when not in use. Some printers take as much power as 660 watts, the same as keeping a small microwave oven cooking continuously! We all have a tendency to keep the computer on if we are not using it because we don't want to wait a couple of minutes to boot up again, but if you are going to be away from the computer for a hour turn it off as you will save more power in that hour than that used to power one 14 watt compact fluorescent lamp for 24 hours.
8. While there are many small items you will not want to ever turn off such as clocks or perhaps your telephone answering machine, they are costing you too. A 7 watt clock or answering machine, adds up to 0.168 kWh per day. But there are many items which never turn off, they stay in standby mode eating up power. Examples are TV's, Video Cassette recorders, DVD players and Cable TV converters, though you might decide you want to keep your VCR or DVE player plugged in all the time if you don't want to reset their clocks. Each of these items eat up power, but by putting them on a power bar with a power switch (with prices starting at $5 each) you can often save in excess of 0.6 kWh per day (20 kwh/month). NOTE: If you have pay-TV services, particularly pay-per-view, you will want to keep your cable television converter powered up at all times, otherwise the cable company's system may have to reset you as a pay-user each time you turn the power back on to the converter,
9. Have a hairdrier? Use it sparingly and don't use the maximum heat setting, not only will you save energy, but your scalp will thank you!
10. Thaw, or partially thaw, frozen foods in the refrigerator before cooking.
11. Small appliances use less power than larger ones. Save money by using a microwave oven rather than a regular electric oven/stove. Use an electric kettle rather than a stovetop one. If you are buying a toaster, don't buy an extra long slot one, if you aren't going to use the extra long slots, because the extra energy / heat is just going to be wasted going up the open space. Cooking with a microwave oven typically uses less than half the energy of an electric stove/oven because it wastes less heat something to think about on a sweltering hot summer day. All that heat being given off of the stove is wasted energy. Of course there is a possible big downside to this, read: Microwave Ovens destroy food nutrients, Globe and Mail newspaper October 17, 2003. On the other hand, over cooking foods using regular ovens can also destroy nutrients.
12. When cooking do not open the door if it is possible to examine the food by looking through the window. You can turn off the heat a couple of minutes before the food is ready for stove-top cooking and several minutes in the oven to save money. Also remember to match the size of any pots or skillets you use on electric stove elements.
13. While I as a tenant have no control over what type of refrigerator the landlord supplies me with, only that it be a working one, when my 1985 "Energy Saver" was replaced (after breaking down in 2003) with a modern Energy Saver, it immediately saved me almost 1 kWh per day. Of course it will cost me in other ways since the landlord will include the cost of the new fridge in his costs when applying for any rent increase. But if there needs to be a replacement anyways, it might as well be a modern "Energy Saver" appliance.
14. Refrigerators: Keep the refrigerator section at between 2C and 5C (36 to 42° F,) and the freezer at -18C (0° F). These temperatures help ensure food safety, but lowering the temperatures further only wastes power. Don't overcrowd the fridge or freezer, freezers should not be more than 2/3's full. It is important that the refrigerator door closes tightly and forms a tight seal, otherwise, warm air will get in and the unit will have to work harder to keep things cool, costing more energy. If you can put a piece of paper between the door and the gasket and can easily pull the paper out when the door is closed, the gasket is probably worn out and should be replaced. Keep your fridge and the seal around the fridge door clean. Also, don't spend time and waste electricity by "grazing" in front of the refrigerator with the door open to browse through its contents.
15. Do at least two electricity audits of your home, one for the coldest month and one for the hottest. How much power are you using and where can you save? Remember: some of these items though turned on may not be on or fully on during their use but may cycle on an off such as Air Conditioners, etc. and their power usage is less in reality, than if you assume they are fully powered at all times
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