World Environment Day: Here are some tips to save electricity and money

Today is the WorldEnvironmentDay, and there are many ways you could do your bit towards this cause. Right from separating your wet- dry garbage to reducing your electricityconsumption. Here are a few smart tips to reduce your electricityconsumptionand also save some money in the process.

Diagnosis: The first step to treat/cure any disease is to correctly diagnose the problem. Similarly, here too the first step is to analyse your electricity consumption pattern, which will help you understand your electricity bill. A website called bijlibachao.com can be help you do so. The site has an online electric bill calculator which helps you understand various components of your bill. It lets you know how much you are paying for per unit (1 kWh) of electricity. And also, give you a ballpark figure as to how much you would be paying for various electrical equipment. You also get to know approximately how much you can save by adopting efficient energy use option.

[caption id=“attachment_904115” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  While speaking about saving electricity, the first thing that comes to our mind is switching from regular bulbs to CFLs. Reuters[/caption]

Take for instance, when we ran a few numbers, we came to know that an incandescent bulb cost us around Rs 90 a month and a CFL just Rs 22. Likewise, a desktop Rs 179 and a laptop just Rs 45 a month. Of course, these are just examples. You can analyse your electricity bill here.

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Tips: If you don’t want to do all these analyses, you can simply do the following few things and save on electricity bills.

**Fans:**While speaking about saving electricity, the first thing that comes to our mind is switching from regular bulbs to CFLs. But there are other things too. According to Abhishek Jain, founder, bijlibachao.com, people tend to neglect fans. Fans actually consume 75 watts while a tube light just consume 55 watts of power. So, change your tube light, but more pertinentlyswitch to a BEE star rated fan, which needs only 50 watts. After all, your use of lightsis restricted to just 4-5 hours in the evening.

Refrigerators: Of course, disposing an old fan is easier then buying a new fridge. But there are other ways to decrease the power consumption of your fridge. First and foremost, don’t place the fridge right in a corner. If you leave enough space between the wall and the fridge, electricity consumption will come down. Secondly, size does matter. Bigger the size of your fridge, higher the consumption. Also remember, more the features (like frost-free, instant ice-maker) the more the energy use. So, if you are planning to buy a new fridge keep this in mind. If you already have a fridge, ensure you place it in the right spot in the room.

Air conditioners: When it comes to conditioning the air, star rated air conditioners are better then the non-star rated variants. In fact, if your power bill is very high, it makes sense to check the air conditioning of your house. If you air conditioner is more than 10 years old, it would be better to replace it with BEE star rated one. More than a decade old air conditioners can increase you bill. But that’s not the only important thing. When it comes to ACs, other parameters that effect the power consumption is the size of the room, the colour of the room and the amount of things you have in the room. So, a light colour and clutter free rooms would help you decrease the electricity bill.

Switch off the points:“How you switch off the device also matters,“Jain says. “If you only switch off the TV’s power button, but the set top box and TV are plugged on to the electric point, which is on, it will consume lots of power.” Even though the equipment is not in use, they consume power. In fact, the amount of power used up by devices on stand-by mode will actually shock you. According to a study conducted by the Department of Energy of the US,a DVD player’s standby power consumption is around 7.54 W, a set top box’s 17.8 W, and desktop PC’s around 23.34 W.

Other tips: Increasingly people are using dryers to dry clothes. If you are blessed with enough sunshine in the area, using the natural resource is the best option. To do so or not is your call. This is just reminder that it is an option too. “Also if you stay in a standalone house or a bungalow, it is best to colour your house white. The white roof reflects the light and hence brings down the temperature of the house by a few degrees. So you consume less electricity to keep the house cool,” says Priya Kanchan, architect and founder, Thrivingreen.com

Another option is solar energy, which you could explore as well.These are just a few suggestions, small changes here and there could make a big difference to save the environment. As well, as save you some money. Do let us know about your tips.

Editor’s note: This article has been republished.