Smart Ways To Save Electricity at Home in 2019

Worried about your rising electricity bill? Being mindful and making some changes in your day to day habits can bring about great savings on your monthly electricity charges. Saving electricity is the need of the hour as it takes up a significant part of our monthly savings and also leads to global energy wastage. Thus energy saving is not only an individual requirement but is also essential for our planet.

The first step towards saving electricity is to prepare your mind for the same. You don’t necessarily have to spend too much money on buying energy-efficient products to reduce household electricity usage. There are a few simple and smart ways to save electricity free of cost. You can start by adopting a few useful daily habits, such as turning off a light or home cooling unit when not required. If you are planning to buy a new appliance, choose products which are energy efficient. Even though the initial cost will be a bit on the higher side, it will pay off in the long run. Installing a home energy monitoring meter can help you understand which appliances are using more electricity on a daily basis.

Following are a few practical and cost-effective ways to reduce your electricity bill.

Use air-conditioning wisely

Home air-conditioning units contribute to a major part of the household electricity bill. If you are using A/c in your home, make sure that you switch them off when the outside weather is pleasant. During summer, you can use large screens or dark curtains for your bedroom windows to block sunlight and keep the rooms cool. Whenever you use the A/c, close all windows and doors tightly for faster cooling. Closing the room doors when you step out of the room helps to retain the air-conditioning effect even after switching it off. During the night, try to switch on the A/c for one or two hours, let the room cool and then switch if off. You should also consider replacing old air-conditioners with better energy-efficient systems to save more electricity.

Minimal use of heating appliances

Hot water geysers consume a large amount of electricity as compared to other appliances. Even though you will be tempted to take long hot showers, try to minimise their usage time to enjoy great energy savings. Avoid the habit of switching on the geyser before taking bath. Switch it on when you are ready for bath and switch it off immediately after the use. Even if you are using a geyser with auto-off features, practice this habit to stop wastage of electricity. You can consider installing solar water heaters if you live in a place where you receive ample sunlight. Are you regularly using a hairdryer to dry your hair? You can save more power if you choose to let your hair dry naturally after a shower.

Adjust the home lighting

Let in natural light during the day and minimize the use of overhead lights. Avoid using porch lights and garden lights during the night. Instead, you can consider installing lights that switch on automatically with motion sensors. Avoid using incandescent bulbs and shift to CFL bulbs or LED lights. Also, use LED tubes or T5 fluorescent tubes for better energy savings in common areas like the kitchen, living room, etc. Thus you would save a major portion of your electricity bill by installing low energy lighting systems in your home.

Unplug all devices

Most of the home appliances like televisions, set-up box, speakers, cordless telephones, computers, and charging devices draw power even when they are switched off. This energy loss is called as standby power or vampire power.  Stand by power accounts for 5 to 10 % of household energy usage. So instead of switching off these devices when not in use, unplug them from the power outlet to save electricity.

Adjust your washing habits

Avoid using the washing machine daily with half-load, instead, wash clothes thrice a week or wait till you have a full load. Skip the drier, if you have provisions for hang drying the clothes. If you are using a dishwasher in the kitchen, make use of the economy cycle and ensure that you are operating it only when it’s full. These are effective methods to save water and electricity.

Save energy while cooking

If you are looking for ways to save electricity bill at home, you must know how to save it in your kitchen. You can enjoy great savings if you are ready to change a few kitchen habits. If you are using an electric oven for baking, try to do batch-cooking to avoid pre-heating the oven several times. Whenever possible, cook in a microwave instead of an electric oven. Microwave ovens use much lesser electricity than conventional electric ovens. While using an electric stove, use lids to cover the top of your cooking vessel, which will reduce the cooking time and also electricity.

Refrigerator power saving

A refrigerator accounts for 15% of the total household power consumption. Keep the fridge about half feet away from the wall to allow continuous airflow. This will help heat generated by the motor and compressor to escape quickly and save power. Never place the fridge near heating sources like direct sunlight, oven, cooking range and radiators. It is advisable to keep the fridge full to retain the cooling inside. However, do not stuff it with a lot of food items as it will block free air circulation. However. Allow warm or hot food items to cool down well before placing them in the refrigerator as otherwise, it will take more power for cooling. Avoid opening the fridge door frequently to maintain optimal cooling inside. Regularly defrost the freezer to prevent the accumulation of ice. Ice acts as a layer of insulation and will increase the cooling time. During winters, set the cooling to minimum to save more energy.

Use of computers

Your desktop computer draws a lot of power, especially if you have activated screen savers. During idle time, adjust the setting to sleep or hibernate mode to save power. This helps to reduce energy costs by approximately 40%. Pull the power cables and laptop chargers out of the power socket when the device is not in use. It is ideal to use a laptop computer as laptops use up to 80% less electricity than desktop computers. Typically a laptop consumes about 60 Watts of power or even less while desktops can use up to 200 Watts of power.

Finally, if you are buying any new appliance for your home, go for energy-efficient products to increase power savings. We hope that you will try these simple tips to save electricity at home.