Simple rules for saving electricity in the house

Paying utility bills at the moment can significantly hit the family budget of the average family. Electricity bills are often the biggest expense. So how to save energy in an apartment and in a private house? In this article we will try to answer this question.

A little about energy saving

It is good to make sure that each household turns off the light, cooks food only at a low temperature, but the introduction of such methods, unfortunately, will not bring you too much benefit. These are just measures that must be followed by all family members. You can give a few simple tips, following which, you can significantly reduce your costs.

First of all, you need to find out which electrical utensils are recognized as the most energy-consuming. The most energy-consuming appliances have always been units with heating elements, such as multicooker, boiler and electric floor heating.

In addition to the above, these also include: electric kettles, ovens, electric furnace, electric fireplaces, refrigerators and dishwashers, electric heaters, irons and hair dryersas well as other similar techniques. In addition to household appliances, active consumers of electricity are also construction devices, such as hammer drills and drills, concrete mixers, building hair dryers, and so on.

If energy-saving (fluorescent) light bulbs have not yet been installed in the premises, which require 4.5-5 times less electricity for operation, in comparison with ordinary ones, then this is just the time. Their cost, at the moment, is still quite high in comparison with ordinary ones, but in the long term they will save you much more money.

Important:

It is worth noting that five energy-saving lamps with a rated power of 20 watts consume the same amount of electricity as an ordinary "weaving", but each of them will produce a luminous flux one level higher.

At this point in time, modern people absolutely cannot imagine their life, without the benefits of civilization that have already become familiar, such as: various gadgets, warm batteries in an apartment or house, household appliances, in general, everything that can improve our daily life. The issue of reducing consumption, and, consequently, payment for this consumption of electricity, is currently very relevant. Therefore, it is necessary to approximately know about what energy consumption all electrical appliances have.

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How to save energy in your home

Refrigerators. The device should be located in a cool place, the contact of the refrigerator with sunlight is not desirable. It is forbidden to install the device near devices and things that emit heat, such as stoves, heaters, batteries and radiators.If the temperature near the refrigerator is 30 degrees Celsius, then the energy consumption can double.

According to the rules for operating the device, it is forbidden to put food in the refrigerator for storage in a hot state, before they must be cooled to room temperature. The freezer also needs periodic defrosting, otherwise the accumulated, considerable, layer of ice, significantly reduces the cooling rate of products, and therefore contributes to an increase in electricity consumption.

Multimedia systems and televisions... The current plasma and LCD TVs, among the common people "flat", have been improved so much that their electricity consumption has been reduced by almost half, compared with their predecessors, which were also equipped with picture tubes, this also applies to computer monitors. CRT 17-inch screen, capable of "winding" more than 190 kW / h during the year. If there is an economical mode on it, this number can be reduced to 130-135 kW / h per year.

Personal computers. Today's "smart" PCs are necessarily equipped with energy saving technology. Sometimes a situation arises that this mode was not activated initially, in which case, you must activate it yourself in the internal settings of the computer motherboard. This method can reduce the power consumption of your computer by 50%.

Vacuum cleaners. For the most correct functioning of the device, it is necessary to regularly clean or replace the dust container. Among other things, try to also clean the air filter, because this element can affect energy consumption during operation.

Smartphones and mobile phones. The charger left in the network is able to consume energy even in the absence of a device, because of this 95% of the energy is wasted for other purposes.

Printers, copiers and multifunctional devices. If you do not disconnect the devices from the network, then for a period of one year, they are capable of winding a thousand kilowatt hours or more. The best way to save money when using a copier is to turn it on only when copying large amounts of data, and then turn it off until next use.

Washing machines. The main reason for the inefficient power consumption of the device is its overload or, on the contrary, the drum underload. In the first case, the excessive consumption can be about 30% of the rated power of the device, 20 kW / h. In the second, about 10-15%. If the device has an ultrasonic washing function, we recommend that you use it, because it consumes about 15 watts.

Below is a table with monthly consumption of some devices;

Device	Number of kilowatt hours
Refrigerator	30
Computer	30
TV set	20
Washing machine	20
Other appliances (kettles, light bulbs, irons, hair dryers, etc.)	40
Air conditioning	40
Dishwasher	20
Microwave	6
Chargers for devices	10

Electricity consumption in the so-called "idle" mode

Consider devices that can consume power even when they are off or asleep. It should be noted that almost every house has about ten such devices.

For example, let's take an ordinary TV off, which every family has. You might think that if the screen does not broadcast any TV program, then it does not consume electricity, but this is not so. The power supply unit of the device and some microcircuits are always energized in order to respond in time to the command coming from the remote control.

Below is a small list of devices that consume power when off:

• cordless phones (charging station and receiver) - 1 watt;
• laser or inkjet printer - from two to four watts;
• chargers for laptops, phones consume about 1 watt;
• electric stoves with electronic control about 3 watts.

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7 most efficient ways to save energy

1. Use only energy efficient lighting fixtures.The most effective and, perhaps, the most effective way of saving is the dismantling of ordinary lamps and the use of energy-saving ones. In addition to luminescent, not so long ago even more economical options appeared that work on the basis of LEDs, that is, LED lamps. Only one significant drawback is the rather high price of the products, but it is worth noting that in the future they should become quite cheap because of the expanding range of applications.
2. Remember to turn off the lights when leaving their room.This rule is one of the simplest tips, but it can significantly reduce energy bills. If you just can't get used to this, we recommend fixing small "notes" in places that are noticeable to you in order to develop a habit of constantly observing this rule, so to speak, to bring it to automatism.
3. Redecorate the room.By making a small redecoration of the room, you can also save some amount of money. It is necessary to glue wallpaper in light shades and paint the ceilings in light colors, thanks to which the light reflection can increase up to 80%.The darker the material or shade, the less solar color it is able to reflect, you should pay attention to this when planning your interior. In addition, it is recommended to use natural lighting as often as possible.
4. Remove dust from lamps and shades regularly.One of the fairly well-known ways to save electricity in an apartment is to promptly clean lighting devices from accumulated dust and dirt. Indeed, in addition to the fact that a dirty light bulb gives out a dimmer light, it also spends more power than a clean one.
5. Install heat reflectors.Screens will help you reduce heat loss, simply install it behind a battery or heater, and you can get a temperature rise of a couple of degrees, and the heat will not go outside and into the walls. A similar screen can be made from ordinary cardboard and food foil.
6. When buying household appliances, pay attention to appliances with energy consumption class "A" and "A +" and "A ++".Energy efficiency is denoted by the so-called energy efficiency classes, it varies from A ++ to G. If the energy consumption class G is indicated on the device, then this device consumes a tremendous amount of energy, class A, on the contrary, is less voracious. When buying household appliances, you should pay attention to the appliances of class A and higher, because they can best help you save energy.
7. Think about insulating an apartment or house.One of the best ways to save energy is to retain energy, not reduce the amount of energy generated. From which we can conclude that the insulation of the room is of paramount importance. First, it is necessary to plug all the cracks in the windows, however, the best solution would be to replace the old wooden windows with new plastic ones with an energy-saving glass unit, since up to fifty percent of the heat can be lost through low-quality windows. In winter, it is recommended to hang thick and dark curtains on the windows. An insulated facade can bring not only warmth to your home, but also significantly reduce heating costs, since it is easier to maintain an already set temperature than to constantly warm up the walls of the building. In the process of warming, you can use mineral wool or foam.

We hope that from this article you have learned how to save energy in an apartment and in a private house.It describes the main ways to save energy and thus save on bills.

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