To understand how to save energy in an apartment, you need to prepare for an integrated approach. Just pushing a button to get the minimum bills doesn't work. And living without light is somehow not comfortable at all.
The importance of saving energy
While energy resources were only worth pennies, no one thought about the need to conserve electricity. Since then, however, there has been considerable public interest in methods of saving electricity and other resources, as payment amounts have risen sharply. Villagers are concerned about how to save electricity in a private house, while townspeople are looking for information on how to save electricity in an apartment.
The increase in tariffs is fully justified, since the planet's reserves of exhaustible energy resources are rapidly decreasing and production costs - on the contrary - are increasing. Unfortunately, the salary of ordinary people in our country is not growing so rapidly that there is no other way out than to look for effective ways to save electricity.
There is another reason to save - the enormous loads on the substations. Every year more and more electrical appliances appear in people's homes. Of course, power lines and substations cannot withstand, they have to be repaired or replaced with more powerful ones.
Energy savings also reduce emissions from processed products to the atmosphere and water sources. Resource-conserving people make their modest contribution to the preservation of rivers, lakes and forests and contribute to maintaining the health of the nation.
Effective and legal ways to save
Reducing the need
How can you save energy at home without equipment and additional investment? It's very easy. All you have to do is think about how much light we really need and use the following advice from seasoned innovators:
- Try to use less electric light. This does not mean a return to primitive times when life activity only took place in daylight. You can just try to do all the things that require bright light during the day and limit yourself to one lamp in the evening to light up the rest of the work.
- If you are dealing with the question of how to save light in an apartment, you need to know that the level of lighting depends on the cleanliness of the lighting fixtures. If the lampshade in the kitchen is covered with a "centuries-old" layer of grease and dust, you shouldn't expect bright light from it. And when the ceiling is clean, the light will penetrate perfectly, which means you can use a smaller bulb.
- The windows also need to be washed more often as this way the daylight hours will last a little longer for you and you can turn on the power later.
- In chandeliers with multiple bulbs, you can turn them on not all at the same time, but one or two at the same time. Use a desk lamp in combination with low ceiling lighting for desk work.
- A very useful invention is a dimmer. Here you can set the lighting level of each luminaire.
- Replace standard incandescent lamps with energy-efficient models. Recently, there was a lot of concern about the question: do LED lamps save energy? Experts believe that the future belongs to LED lamps as they use little energy and emit a reasonable amount of light.
- Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Of course, this is quite difficult when there are children in the house who find it very difficult to get used to such a simple way of saving.
Using tariffs with multiple tariffs
Electricity can cost differently at different times of the day. This is because it is consumed in large quantities during the day, and power plants are almost idle at night. How can you save energy with a meter that calculates the energy used at the usual price during the day and at night? How can you pay 30% less? If the house has devices that are used around the clock (refrigerator, electric heater, etc. ), a multi-tariff meter will help lower the electricity bill. Washing can be started at night and at the same time the power of the heaters can be increased to turn them off completely during the day.
Rational use of technology
In every house there are devices that can never be switched off from the sockets. But not everyone knows that they draw electricity even in "sleep" mode. Every single device has a very small amount of support performance, but an impressive amount is achieved in a month. To avoid unnecessary waste, it is sufficient to pull the plugs of all devices out of the sockets during their "idle time".
Note: Using old, poor quality cords and a large number of extension cords and various tees will also increase power consumption at home.
Technical innovations
People who want to dream about how to properly save electricity in an apartment should evaluate each of their home appliances. After all, old models of refrigerators and televisions consume a lot of energy, twice as much as modern models. Gradually try to replace any obsolete equipment with low-energy models. The labels usually indicate the level of economy, class A is the most profitable.
Recently, more economical power consumption classes such as A +, A ++ have appeared.
Smart devices are now available for sale. You can calculate the amount of detergent or laundry detergent regardless of the weight of the dishes or laundry and control the water consumption. Refrigerators can switch to super economy mode during the owners vacation.
fridge
Probably a million articles have been written about the correct installation of the refrigerator and thousands of videos have been made, but our staff persistently place this device near the heater battery, the stove and on the sunny side. But in this case, the refrigerator will quickly warm up from nearby sources of heat and will consume much more electricity. It is also recommended to leave a small space between the refrigerator and the wall to allow the necessary air circulation.
It is also desirable that the room where the refrigerator is located be cool. Do not forget to defrost the cooling unit as necessary and remove the accumulated ice in order to simplify the operation of the device and to reduce the "energy appetite". Make sure the door is not damaged.
If you are thinking about how to reduce energy costs, then when buying a new refrigerator, you should not "swing" the largest and most spacious model if 2-3 people permanently live in the house. After all, such a "colossus" consumes a lot of energy.
A vacuum cleaner
In order to prevent the vacuum cleaner from drawing more energy from the network than it should, it must be cleaned of accumulated dust layers regularly and in a timely manner, since it is full and consumes 15 to 20% more. Also, don't turn the vacuum cleaner on / off too often - it uses most of the energy for these actions.
Electric oven
An electric stove is a very energy-consuming device. You can reduce energy costs by following the recommendations below:
- If the recipe for the dish does not indicate that the oven should be preheated at the time of putting the dish, then you should not turn it on in advance.
- Turn off the hotplate 5-10 minutes before the end of the cooking time. There will be enough residual heat to cook it.
- Pans should always be covered with lids.
- When cooking eggs and vegetables, add just enough water to cover the food.
- It's important to use good, flat-bottomed pans. Ideal for an electric stove - thick-bottomed pots and pans.
- When boiling water for tea or coffee, do not use a stove, but a kettle, as this uses much less electricity for this process.
- Use a microwave or multicooker, not an oven, for quick meals.
Washing machine
It is very difficult to imagine modern life without a washing machine, but it also "eats" a lot of electricity - around 15% of total consumption. Use These Tricks To Save Money:
- Wash using the Quick and Economy modes
- Do not wash 2-3 items at a time, but dig underneath the laundry until it is fully loaded. But you can't overload the car either.
- Use low temperature settings for normal washing.
Air conditioners
To prevent the air conditioner from consuming too much power, operate it properly:
- Set the temperature to an optimal temperature just enough to cool the room down and not freeze it.
- Do not operate the air conditioner with the windows or doors open.
- When buying an air conditioner, be sure to calculate the area of the room where it will cool. Don't take too much for a small space as it is a waste of electricity.
- Be sure to clean the fans, filters and grilles of the air conditioner so that it does not have to be operated at high speeds.
Heaters
In autumn, winter and early spring we often have to get different heaters out of the house containers. After all, the heating is often switched on and off for a very long time. So we use energy-consuming heating, although this heat is very expensive.
To reduce the need for heating, even in a relatively warm period, you need to insulate everything you can: windows, walls, floors, etc. Old windows are best replaced with plastic ones. And if this is not possible, at least try to close any cracks and microcracks in the frame and next to the glass. Up to 50% of the heat is dissipated through them. Do the same manipulations with the front doors.
If the heating is already on and the batteries are still cold, then you need to call a master who will check if there is water in them.
The use of solar energy
Solar energy has long been actively used in many countries with warm climates. Some have even managed to completely abandon all other sources. The technology is very attractive, but without government support it often turns out to be an overwhelming task for individual households as solar panels and other structural elements are very expensive and pay off over many years.
In order to be able to save electricity with the help of the sun, it is advisable to read special literature during the project phase and to determine the necessary properties of a solar station. Many people try to create the entire structure on their own, but do not take into account all the nuances and difficulties, and often fail.
Wind energy
Home wind generators in regions with high air mass activity can significantly reduce electricity costs, and if there is a special meter, they can also make money from the electricity generated. However, such devices, as well as solar stations, cost a lot of money and require installation by specialists.
It happens that the owners of such power plants incorrectly calculate the power of wind currents, which leads to the forced downtime of expensive equipment.
Smart home system
To automate the operation of all devices in the house, special devices and a computer program are used that also controls energy consumption. Sensors are installed throughout the house that record measured values and determine the power consumption in each room. The computer analyzes and suggests solutions to optimize energy consumption.
The system does not work alone, it has to be programmed for a specific house or apartment. However, when all the residents of the house are distracted about their business in the morning, the system turns off the air conditioning or lights in the kitchen, locks the door or starts washing.
Installation of motion sensors
Instead of buying a fairly expensive "smart home" system, you can get by on "little blood" and install motion sensors in the premises. After all, we often just forget to turn off the lights when we leave the house or fall asleep with the lights on. However, if the rooms are equipped with motion sensors, they turn off the lights themselves. They can be set so that the light is switched off only 5-10 minutes after leaving the room. After all, children are running back and forth all the time, and adults can move around the house very quickly.
Such a sensor is very useful in the corridor, where light is only needed for passage to another room. In order not to constantly press the switch or not to constantly turn on the light in the corridor, you can put on the sensor and live comfortably. Energy-saving lamps with built-in motion sensors are now available.
Saving electricity is not very difficult. All you have to do is tune in and arrange this with all household members. The main obstacle is ourselves and our beliefs. Once we receive the realization of the need to save money, it immediately turns out that the bills for the light are small.