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Electricity tips
From TipThePlanet
Lighting
- Replace incandescent lamps with Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs.
- For stairways or corridors which are not often used, have a lamp which is switched on with a timer
- Make use of daylight hours and do not turn on lights and lamps
Cooling
- Paint the roof, and the whole exterior of the house with light colors. Light colors reflects heat energy thus cooling the house inside.
- Make sure that at there is at least 10 cm space between the refrigerator and the wall. It uses less electricity if the warmth released at the back can easily flow away.
- Thaw frozen items inside the “cool” section of the refrigerator. The coldness that is released goes into cooling the refrigerator, thus, saving energy.
- Replace old refrigerator with newer, Energy Star model.
- Raise the thermostat by 1 C and lower your electricity bill up to five per cent.
- Open windows at night and use fans to blow in cool air. During the day, close your windows and draw the curtains closed to keep out solar energy.
- Consider planting a deciduous tree on the south side of your lawn to block the sun during the summer, and let in solar energy during the winter when it sheds its leaves.
- Put insulation around the pipes going in and out of your water heater.
Cooking/Heating
- Use a microwave to reheat food or to cook small portions. Although a microwave uses a lot of power, it does so over a very short time and so saves energy overall.
- Use a pressure cooker when you need to boil food for a longer time.
- Turn the stove off before the food is fully cooked, and use the remaining heat. Cook many items at the same time when your electric oven is hot.
- Use space heaters to heat only the rooms you're in (rather than a central system that heats the whole house), and turning off the heat when you're not home.
- Use a convection oven. A small fan inside circulates hot air throughout the oven cutting cooking times by up to 30%.
Others
- Take short showers instead of baths. A five-minute shower uses about half as much water as a bat
- Cool cooked food before you put it into the fridge.
- Do not leave appliances in standby mode.
- Wash laundry in cold water instead of hot or warm
- Hang your clothes out to dry rather than using an electric tumble dryer. Ideally use a spin dryer before using the tumble dryer.
- Guide to electricity usage of items in the home.
- Don't leave devices on standby
- Use a microwave rather than an electric oven
- Get the Standby Plug, an electrical device that will automatically turn off an appliance that is in standby mode.
- Only charging your phone for as long as it needs
- Shift energy-intensive tasks such as laundry and dish washing to off-peak energy demand hours to increase electricity reliability during heat waves; do full loads when you run washers, dryers, and dishwashers
- Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones - they'll save you money in the long term. You can buy solar powered rechargers if you want to reduce your environmental impact even further
- Only fill the kettle as full as you need to - it takes a lot of energy to heat water. If you buy a new kettle, buy one that shows you how much water is inside, and preferably has a minimum level of 1 cup.
- When cooking, put lids on saucepans - the contents will heat up much quicker, and you'll be saving energy too.
- Switch to green energy
- Find out about distributive power
