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5 handy hints for reducing your energy consumptionIn this column we’ll take a look at 5 simple ways you can cut down the amount of power you use. These are easy and practical solutions you can do to make real change to your power use without painful changes to your lifestyle. Don’t forget that reducing your power bill doesn’t only reduce your carbon emissions, but it’ll reduce your power bills as well! Take the YES Challenge and see if you can achieve a zero-balance power bill! 1. Switch things off at the wall.Think about how many appliances you have in the home which are plugged into the wall and you haven’t touched since switching them on. Go on, we’ll wait.
Appliances on standby mode are still using power. That digital clock on the microwave is actually burning juice while you’re out at work. Do you leave your phone charger on at the wall? The transformer on the plug houses a circuit; it uses power even when your phone isn’t plugged in! Leave the fridge on and the filter on the fish tank, but turn everything else off at the wall, you’ll be surprised how much power usage all those little appliances add up to when on standby 24 hours a day. You’ll save about 10% of your home power use. 2. Smart water use.It takes a lot of energy to heat water. So much so that heating water will likely be about a third of your home energy usage. The trick to minimising this is to reduce the amount of water you need to heat. Take shorter showers and install a 3-star rated water saving showerhead. Pack your dishwasher to the gills every time you run it. Most dishwashers actually use less water than you would by washing dishes by hand, and there’s no reason to rinse dishes before loading the dishwasher. Wash your clothes in cold water and dry them on a line, heating air to dry clothes uses a pile of energy as well. Even better, get a solar hot water system! 3. Get rid of your incandescent light bulbs.Incandescent light bulbs are an extremely inefficient light source. About 5% of your home use can come from incandescent lighting, and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75% less power. They come in a huge range of shapes and sizes and last longer than incandescent bulbs. They cost a bit more than the old ones, but due to the fact you need to change them less often, they work out to be cheaper. 4. Clean your fridge.Wait, what? Ideal running temperatures for fridges are between 3 to 5oC. Anything less than this can make it frost up and will take more juice to run. Freezers should be between -15 and -18oC. Make sure to clean off any frost that builds up. 5. Smart heating/cooling.Why use power to warm the house when there’s already heat inside? The trick here is to stop it escaping, rather than turn electricity into heat (which will then escape as well!) These tips require only a little bit of effort, but the rewards for doing them will be vastly different to taking the easy road. Every landslide starts with just one pebble! Every journey begins with just one step! Next time we’ll talk about bigger things you can do to get serious about saving energy. The world of grid parity is not some magical faraway land, it’s achievable and it will happen in a few years as the price of electricity goes through the roof. After your system pays itself off, it starts generating income for you, sounds like a new dawn to us. |
YES Solar specialises in the supply of solar photovoltaic systems to many national distributors. All installers of our systems are CEC accredited and our panels are IEC 61215 accredited and designed with the best technology available. YES Solar is committed to helping Australians reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming.
