Easy Electric Tips
The production of most Electricity uses a lot of fossil fuels, and produces a lot of greenhouse gasses. Saving electricity makes a financial sense as well as helping the environment, the cost of electricity is expected to rise considerably over the coming years, so the more efficient your household becomes at using electricity now, the more money you will save.
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- Energy Saving Light Bulbs
- Efficient Electrical Appliances
- Don't Overfill your Kettle
- Fill up your Dishwasher
- Set your Washing Machine to 30 Degrees
- Off is much better than Standby
- Take off your Shoes in your Home
- Use a Laptop Computer instead of a Desktop Computer
- Keep your Fridge or Freezer Door Closed
- Use a Blank Screen for your Screen Saver
- Turn off your Computer
- The EcoButton
- Use Smart Extension Leads
Energy Saving Light Bulbs
As the name suggests energy saving light bulbs use considerably less energy than other types of light bulbs, and cost little or no more than other light bulbs.
Efficient Electrical Appliances
Here is an example of the European Union energy label for a 'Level A' appliance.
In Europe many electrical appliances such as washing machines have to show the European Union energy label, which enables you to easily see the energy efficiency of a product. 'A' is the most efficient and 'G' is the least efficient. If you purchase a more efficient product your energy consumption will be far less, especially if you are purchasing a power hungry appliance such as a washing machine.
Don't Overfill your Kettle
Kettles use a lot of energy to boil water. In fact in the UK after the TV program EastEnders finishes millions of people put on their kettles for a hot drink at the same time. This creates so much of an instant demand for electricity that extra power plants need to start generating electricity, and extra electricity from France is purchased so the national grid can cope. By filling up your kettle using your cup with the number of cup full's you need, plus half a cup to account for evaporation, then you don't waste electric boiling extra water you don't need.
Fill up your Dishwasher
By filling up your dish washer with as much washing as possible you minimise the number of washes needed to wash the same amount of dishes, which means you consume less electricity and use less water.
Set your Washing Machine to 30 Degrees
Setting your washing machine to 30 Degrees ensures that you don't use more energy than is necessary in heating the water used to wash your cloths.
Off is much better than Standby
Leaving appliances on standby can use over 25% of the energy they would use if they were left fully on. Anything that is warm, or has a light on, is using energy. Also fires are often caused by electric appliances that are left on standby, so it's safer to turn them off.
Take off your Shoes in your Home
If you have a lot of shoes in your house, a shoe rack can help save space.
By taking off your shoes when entering your house, you can reduce the amount of dirt in your house by up to 80%, which means you don't need to clean your house as often which saves energy.
Use a Laptop Computer instead of a Desktop Computer
Laptop parts are designed to be use less energy.
Keep your Fridge or Freezer Door Closed
Every time you open your fridge or freezer door it takes energy to bring the temperature down again so open the door as little as possible.
Use a Blank Screen for your Screen Saver
Colourful pretty screen savers consume far more electricity than a simple black screen.
Turn off your Computer
If you're not using your computer its best to turn it off. If for some reason it would not be suitable to turn of your computer but you are not using it then many computers now have a 'hibernate mode' that saves power and what you were doing on the computer.
The EcoButton
The EcoButton is very simple. You plug it into your computer then when you leave it for a break you push it and it puts your computer into hibernate mode, when you get back you push it again to return to your computer activity and it tells you how much electric you have saved and an approximation of how much money you have saved. There is a BBC video demonstrating the Eco Button
Use Smart Extension Leads
A smart extension lead like the name suggests, is smart. For example say you use an extension lead to plug your computer, monitor and printer into; a smart extension lead waits for a large power drop (like when you turn off your computer) and then turns off the power instantly turning off the monitor and printer etc automatically so you don\’t need to manually turn everything off. The smart extension lead then waits until you switch the PC back on again before restoring power to the monitor and printer etc.