So you just moved into your dream house you spent such a great amount of cash on renting or buying. You spend some more money on furnishing it and decorating it in a manner befitting your dream home. That’s the end of your money troubles, right? Well… not exactly. You still have bills to pay, some of which you might find outrageous. Let us supply a couple of recommendations on how to reduce the utility costs for power in your household, so you can spend the extra money on more fun things.
- Refrigerators and Freezers
a. Ever found yourself staring at the contents of your fridge or freezer attempting to decide what you need to get from it? Keeping the fridge open for a really long time causes the fridge to work harder to re-cool the now warmer air you just filled it with.
b. Do NOT place your fridge excessively near the wall. Always leave some space between the back of the fridge or freezer and the wall. Nearness of the back of the fridge (where the fan can be found) to wall would cause heat emanating from the fridge to return to the fridge after hitting the wall resulting in the fan requiring, even more, power than usual in order to dispose of this new heat in addition to what it was getting rid of previously.
c. Energy efficient fridges expend 350 – 450 kWh compared to 1200 kWh in a year for the non-energy efficient fridges. To know how much this will be in monetary terms, multiply this by the current tariff rate to see how this translates in Ghana cedis.
2. Air Conditioners and Fans
a. Air-conditioned rooms ought to be sealed as much as possible and not have open windows or always open doors. Having windows and doors open makes the air-conditioner draw more power to try to cool the extra spaces the open doors and windows create. Air-conditioned rooms ought to have heavy or thick curtains, which can keep the room generally dim and help keep up the room temperature.
b. Keep windows and louvres open when using a ceiling fan or standing fan. That way, the fan can more efficiently draw in cool air from outside and push out warm air. That’s more efficient.
3. Lights
a. For optimum efficiency, your lights should be switched on when it’s dark and switched off immediately the sun starts rising. Preferably, 6pm to 6am in homes.
b. Use energy efficient bulbs. Purchase and utilize the more energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) over incandescent onion bulbs. This will spare you a lot of cash in power bills.
4. Ironing
Ironing consumes a whole lot of power. Particularly amid the period when the iron is heating up. For this reason, you should iron in bulk and not in bits. When it’s fully warm, the iron’s consumption is stabilized. Ironing in bits, however, requires cooling and re-heating of the iron every time it’s used. This takes up greater energy every time it reheats.
5. Other forms of conserving energy
a. Phone and Device Chargers
When your phone or other gadget charger is left connected yet detached from your phone or gadget, it consumes 0.001kWh and above of energy. The excess energy causes it to keep warming up as it draws the full voltage from the socket and converts it to the amount the device it charges can use (even though the device is not connected). Apart from the energy wasted, it could also get hot enough to start a fire in your home.
b. Televisions
When a television is on standby, it is still consuming power. Sometimes even more than when it was actually in use. It is most advisable to switch it off absolutely when you are no longer interested in watching.
c. Bathroom & Kitchen Water Heaters:
Switch off household water heaters when not in use or when not required. Only switch them on about five to ten minutes before you need them. Switch them off immediately after use.
Important
Always check the energy efficiency guide from the Energy Commission on the yellow sticker that accompanies the various devices and appliances. This gives you a fair idea of how much power each device or appliance will consume.
The more the stars in the energy guide for an appliance, the more efficient it is. In other words, the more the stars, the less the energy consumed.
Hope this has been helpful. Are there other ways in which you conserve energy at home? Don’t be shy. Please share with us and the rest of the world in the comments below.
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