To understand how to save energy in an apartment, you need to prepare for an integrated approach. Just pressing the button to receive the minimum bills will not work. And life without light is somehow not comfortable at all.
The importance of saving energy
While energy resources cost only pennies, no one thought about the need to save electricity. But since then, as payments have risen sharply, there has been significant interest among the population in methods of saving electricity and other resources. Villagers are worried about how to save electricity in a private house, while city residents are looking for information on how to save electricity in an apartment.
The increase in tariffs is fully justified, because the planet is rapidly reducing its reserves of depleted energy resources, and the cost of their production - on the contrary, is rising. Unfortunately, the salaries of ordinary people in our country do not show such frantic growth, so there is no other way out but to look for effective ways to save electricity.
There is another reason for saving - the colossal loads of transformer substations. Every year, more and more electrical appliances appear in people's homes. Of course, power lines and substations may not last, they need to be repaired or replaced with more powerful ones.
Also, due to energy savings, emissions of processed products into the atmosphere and water sources are reduced. Saving resources make a modest contribution to the protection of rivers, lakes and forests and help preserve the health of the nation.
Effective and legal ways to save
Reducing the need
How can you save energy at home without any appliances and additional investment? It's very simple. You just need to think about how much light we really need and use the following tips from experienced innovators:
- Try to use less electric light. This does not mean a return to primitive times, when life's activities took place only in daylight. You can just try to do all the things that require bright lighting during the day, and in the evening limit yourself to one lamp to illuminate the rest of the work.
- When studying the question of how to save light in an apartment, you should know that the degree of illumination depends on the cleanliness of the lighting fixtures. If the lampshade in the kitchen is covered with a "century-old" layer of grease and dust, then you should not expect bright light from it. And if the ceiling is clean, then the light penetrates perfectly through it, which means you can use a smaller bulb.
- The windows also need to be washed more often, because this way the daytime hours will last a little longer for you and you can turn on the electricity later.
- In the chandeliers with several bulbs you can include them not all at once, but one or two. For desk work, use a table lamp in combination with low overhead lighting.
- A very useful invention is a dimer. It allows you to adjust the brightness of each luminaire.
- Replace standard incandescent bulbs for energy efficient models. Recently, many have begun to worry about the question: do LED lamps save energy? Experts are convinced that the future belongs to LED lamps, as they consume a scarce amount of energy, emitting a decent amount of light.
- Turn off the lights when you leave the room. This, of course, is quite difficult if there are children in the house, which is very difficult to get used to such a simple way to save.
Use of multi-tariff meters
Electricity can cost differently at different times of the day. This is due to the fact that during the day it is consumed in large quantities, and at night power plants operate almost at idle. How to save energy with a meter that calculates the energy consumed during the day at the usual price, and at night - allows you to pay 30% less? If the house has appliances that are used around the clock (refrigerator, electric heating, etc. ), then the multi-tariff meter will help reduce the electricity bill. Washing can start 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 home there are devices that are never disconnected from the sockets. But not everyone knows that even in "sleep" mode they draw electricity. Each individual device has a very small amount of such support power, but an impressive amount is obtained in one month. To prevent unnecessary waste, just pull the plugs onall devices from the sockets during their "idle".
Note: The use of old low quality cables and a large number of extension cords and various tees also increases the power consumption at home.
Technical innovations
People who dream of learning how to properly save electricity in an apartment should evaluate each of their household appliances. After all, older models of refrigerators and TVs consume a lot of energy, 2 times more than modern models. Try to gradually replace all obsolete appliances with low-energy models. Labels usually show the degree of economy, class A is the most profitable.
Recently, more economical classes for energy consumption have appeared, such as A +, A ++.
Smart devices have already started to appear on the market, they can independently calculate the amount of detergent or detergent based on the weight of dishes or linen and control water consumption. Refrigerators can go into super economy mode during the owners' holidays.
Refrigerator
Probably a million articles have already been written about the proper installation of the refrigerator and thousands of videos have been shot, but our people still stubbornly continue to place this device near the heater, the stove and on the sunny side. But in this case, the refrigerator heats up quickly from nearby heat sources and consumes much more electricity. It is also recommended to leave a little free space between the refrigerator and the wall to ensure the necessary air circulation.
It is also desirable that the room in which the refrigerator is located is cool. Be sure to defrost the refrigerator if necessary and free it of accumulated ice, making it easier to operate the appliance and reducing its "energy appetite".
If you are considering how to reduce energy bills, then when you buy a new refrigerator, do not "swing" on the largest and most capacious model, if the house is constantly inhabited by 2-3 people. In the end, such a "colossus" consumes a lotenergy.
Vacuum cleaner
In order not to start the vacuum cleaner to start drawing more energy from the network than it should, it should be regularly and timely cleaned of accumulated layers of dust, because, full, it consumes 15-20% more. And also do not turn on / off the vacuum cleaner too often - it consumes the most energy for these actions.
Electric oven
The electric stove is a very energy consuming device. You can reduce energy costs by following these recommendations:
- If the recipe for the dish does not indicate that the oven must be preheated at the time the dish is placed in it, then you should not turn it on in advance.
- Turn off the stove 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking time. There will be enough residual heat to prepare it.
- Frying pans should always be covered with lids.
- When cooking eggs and vegetables, add enough water to cover the food.
- It is important to use good flat-bottomed pans. Ideal for electric stove - pots and pans with thick bottoms.
- To boil water for tea or coffee, use not an oven but an electric kettle, because it will consume much less electricity for this process.
- For fast food, use a microwave or multicooker, not an oven.
Washer
It is very difficult to imagine modern life without a washing machine, but it also "eats" a lot of electricity - about 15% of total consumption. To save some money, use these tricks:
- Wash with fast and economical mode
- Do not wash 2-3 items at a time, but undermine 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 consumption of many air conditioners, use it properly:
- Set the temperature to the optimum temperature to cool rather than freeze the room.
- Do not operate the air conditioner with open windows or doors.
- When buying an air conditioner, be sure to calculate the area of †‹вЂ‹ the room in which it will cool. Do not take too powerful for a small room, because it is a loss of electricity.
- Be sure to clean the fans, filters and grilles of the air conditioner so that it does not have to run at high speeds.
Heaters
In autumn, winter and early spring we often have to get different heaters from household bins. After all, the heating is often turned on and off for a very long time. So we use energy-intensive heaters, although such heat is very expensive.
To reduce the need for heaters, even in relatively warm weather, make sure to insulate everything you can: windows, walls, floors and more. Old windows are best replaced with plastic ones. And if that's not possible, at least try to close all the cracks and microcracks within and next to the glass. They release up to 50% of the heat. Do the same manipulations with the front doors.
If the heating is already on and the batteries are still cold, then you should call a technician 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 even managed to completely abandon all other sources. The technology is very attractive, but without government support it often proves to be a huge task for individual households, as solar panels and other structural elements are very expensive and pay for themselves over many years.
To know how to save electricity with the help of the sun, it is recommended to read special literature and determine the necessary characteristics of a solar station at the project stage. Many people try to do the whole structure themselves, but do not take into account all the nuances and difficulties, so they often fail.
Wind energy
Domestic wind turbines in regions with high air mass activity can significantly reduce electricity costs, and if there is a special meter, they can also benefit from the electricity generated. But 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 flows and this leads to forced downtime of expensive equipment.
Smart home system
To automate the operation of all devices in the house, special equipment and a computer program are used, which also controls the level of energy consumption. Sensors are placed throughout the house that record and determine the amount of electricity used in each room. The computer analyzes and offers solutions to optimize energy use.
The system will not work alone, it must be programmed for a specific house or apartment. But when all the occupants of the house are scattered in the morning on their business, the system will turn off the air conditioning or lighting in the kitchen, lock the door or start washing.
Installation of motion sensors
Instead of buying a rather expensive "Smart Home" system, you can deal with "a little blood" and install motion sensors in the premises. After all, we often just forget to turn off the light when we leave the house, or fall asleep with the light on. But if the rooms are equipped with motion sensors, they will turn off the lights themselves. They can be adjusted so that the light is turned off only 5-10 minutes after the person leaves the room. After all, children are constantly running back and forth, and adults can move very quickly in the house.
Such a sensor is very useful in the hallway, where the light is only needed to move to another room. In order not to constantly switch the switch or constantly keep the light on in the hallway, you can place the sensor and live comfortably. Energy-saving lamps with built-in motion sensors are now available.
Saving electricity is not very difficult, you just have to adjust and agree with all members of the household. The main obstacle is ourselves and our beliefs. As soon as the realization of the need to save money comes to us, it immediately turns out that the bills for light are small.