How to save money by saving energy

Conserve Energy is the mantra of the day

It is always told to us to conserve or save energy. The government is trying its best to bring awareness into the masses about power saving. These days as the consumption is more and production is less there are frequent power cuts and in convince for the masses. With the life style being changed these days almost every thing in our day to day use has become automatic and most of the manual work is done by machines.

Since the production is less the cost per unit has gone up and people have to pay a lot for the energy they use. With the involvement of the government for using solar power or bio gas at least some percentage of power is saved.

The usage of energy has an effect on the climate and also on the lives of the people and effective utilization of the power for required work which include house hold items, personal items etc can bring a lot of change for the government and also for the individual to see that the cost of purchase going down. This requires cooperation from all the people and when this awareness is spread we can see a change in India.

For a better climate and also for reduction in your power bills these tips can be of help.

1. Usage of Air Conditioners: When the air conditioner is switched on in a room or in the office cover the windows with thick dark curtains, close all the doors and do not allow sun light to fall in. When you feel that the room is cooled down to the required temperature switch off the air conditioner and switch of the fan with the required speed to see that the room is kept cool and the energy is saved. An air conditioner consumes more power than a fan. Proper usage of air conditioner will save energy and the climate because the air conditioner exhausts heat and this will have an effect on the climate.

2. Usage of Washing Machines for clothes: Always it is better to be well versed with the washing machine and all its features and how to use it at various loads and levels. Most of the time what every one does is that even for any amount of loads they use all the features of the machine by which the washing period extends and also the power and also the water. The best tip is to know the features well in your machine and use of required features for example if you are washing light clothes there would not be need of running turbo which consumes some power and also water.

Always wash full loads or adjust the water level for the smaller loads and also the type of wash should be set.

It is always better to air dry the clothes in the sun instead of using the dryer in the machine. If the weather is dull then use dryer.

Using cold water wash will also cut down the heating cost for the wash.

3. Cooking: Most of the time gas is wasted while cooking because of minor mistakes we make in the kitchen. I have seen in some kitchens that keeping the stove in sim and washing a utensil is also waste of gas. Some measures by which gas can be saved are:
1. When heating/cooking the food on a gas stove covering the vessel with a proper lid will save the gas and also ensures that the food is cooked properly.
2. Using of wide utensils with convex surface ensures that heat is transmitted to all side and also the food is heated soon than in narrow utensils.
3. When using a oven for heating or cooking, keeping the controls in proper positions and also closing the oven doors ensures that the food is cooked and in less time. Each time when the door is opened the temperature inside it drops by 25 deg C, thus requiring more energy to cook the food.

4. Chargers: One common thing noticed in all house holds is that the mobile phone chargers are hooked to the plug even when the phone is not being charged or not unplugged from the phone when charging is full.

The charger can draw power even when the batteries are fully charged or even when the phone is not plugged in.

One way to ensure that the phones are charged and also electricity is save is that now since most of the mobiles are coming with a USB port to charge it is always a good idea to charge you phone using USB cable plugged into your computer/laptop while you are working on it.

This ensures that the power for charging is saved and also that it does not consumes extra power when charging it through USB mode.

It is also a good practice to charge your mobile while travelling in the car. These days there are varied types of car charges available in the market.

Over charging and under charging also cause damage to your battery and also reduces the life of the battery.

5. Driving Habits: Improper driving habits causes damage to self and also to the car like putting extra pressure on the engine, usage of more petrol, gradually giving less mileage etc. the reasons for less mileage are:

1. Aggressive driving habits for example like excessive speeding and heavy breaking can lower the mileage by almost 5%.
2. It is always better to avoid short trips because starting the car several times instead of one by making one trip to cover the same distance will consume twice the fuel.
3. carpooling helps to make the best use of the car.

6. Water Heating: These days to save gas people are using electricity for heating water thinking that gas is being saved but heating of water for daily use can account for 15% of the electricity bill and the amount could be more when the units increases.

Using of solar water heaters instead or install low flow shower heads. They are cheap, easy to install and reduce hot water use.
Using of traditional water heaters is also a risk when not used properly.

7. Windows: It is always better to replace old windows this not only gives look to the room but also installing new dual pane windows prevents cool air from leaking out will reduce the energy the AC uses.

8. Lights: Using a normal bulb gives low light and also emits heat and consumes more power but replacing them with CFL (compact Fluorescent Lights) will use around half of the power for the same amount of light and last four times.

It is better to see that the house/room is well ventilated and use of natural light when ever possible a good habit.

9. Usage of Computer/Laptop: Do you know that a laptop uses less energy than a desktop computer. To make the battery last more than 10 times longer follow these steps.
1. Switch on WIFI and Blue Tooth connections only when there is a need of it.
2. Activate the sleep function on your computer so that when not in use will turn the laptop into power saving mode.
3. Use any external drives like pen drive or USB devices only when in use or else plug out these devices because they consume power and the battery life I reduced.
4. It is always better to close the laptop when taking short breaks.

10. House Hold Appliances: All the house hold appliances like Refrigerators, ACs , motors, washing machines etc come with a star rating for power efficiency. Buying appliances with a higher rating will save a lot of power and cut down the bills. Appliances use electricity even in standby mode so be sure that you turn of the mains when the appliance is not used for long time. It is better to unplug the device.

How to save money by saving energy

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