Energy Saving Methods

If you heat (the home and/or water) with electricity, there are commonly cheaper methods, depending on the location. Where I'm located, there is no natural gas available, so propane is commonly the cheapest. I'm also blessed with a fairly abundant supply of firewood - cutting it is my main exercise, and fortunately I can burn it legally. Many places don't permit it now.

Agree with RedFred.

Refrigerators are a huge drain, keep the door closed and turn off any spare units.

Wear a jumper (pullover) inside, turn the thermostat down, get a blanket when watching TV.

Get rid of recessed spot lights ( a typical room can have 6 - 8 100W downlights), replace them with fewer surface mounted compact fluorescents.

Get high efficiency "reverse cycle" airconditioners rather than electric radiators, use gas heating if possible.

Put ceiling to floor curtains over all external windows, double glaze, close up unused rooms. Install roof insulation, block up all draughts.

The most cost effective way to lower A/C load in the summer, is to put ceiling fans in every room, then turn the A/C temperature up 2 degrees.

just properly unplug all your idle systems instead of leaving them on standby mode if not in use, specialy at night even a cell phone charger needs to be unpluged properly and try not to leave lights on during day time.If you have UPS try to chareg it with alternate energy sources like solar pannel or wind turbine and if you installed any of these alternate energy system try to run all your lights on it even when power supply is availble. in this way u will reduce most of your electricity consumtion.try to minimize the use of microwave and heavy appliances like these.

I guess the OP is from India. If my guess is correct, the posts related to heating the house, using natural gas etc. are irrelevant.

My answer to OP will be live simple. If you can tolerate at your location, avoid hot water bath. Cold water bath is more healthy too.

Religiously switch of the gadgets including lights in the rooms, where no body is there. Only switch on those, when you go there. Do not use AC. Make natural ventilation more effective.

If your building is not too high, do not use elevator. AtLeast avoid it while climbing down. Climbing the staircase is good for health. While using elevator, see around if some other person is also approaching.

Consciously decide the TV programs to be watched. Do not switch off the TV or radio using remote, but switch of the main switch to the gadget.

There are so many ways.

If you are in India, we need not use any energy for home heating(most parts of India), we are lucky.

The most energy used is for heating water for bath. If you invest about Rs. 20000(<$500), you can install solar water heater that will take care of 3 to 5 kwh per day. I have installed one recently and now I can use hot water without feeling guilty.

I had carried out measurements on how much a refrigerator cosnumes, and I found it was between 2.5 to 3 kwh/day.(160 to 200 litres capacity)

Lighting and fans consume relatively less energy, and we generally use the CFLs for lighting.

My usage of electrical energy ranges from 250kwh in December to about 500 to 600kwh in May when I use two 1TR airconditioners(strictly during nights).The electricity costs about Rs. 6 to 7 once you consume over 500 kwh per month, but if your consumption is less than 100 kwh/month the cost would be less than Rs.3/kwh.

I would like to know how this compares with American and Europian homes where lot of energy is required for heating. The distribution might throw up some ideas to share that we might not be aware of.

Rajesh

Thanks....

Yes.. am from India.

Fridge - a necessity for living.

Apart from other suggestions... being in an engineering forum I would like to know about an equipment I heard about that when plugged into an AC outlet, regulates the current supply to the appliances connected to the electric supply thus saves wastage of electricity. This will bring down total consumption of electricity. Is there something like that???

There can not be any equipment, which will regulate the current to the gadget. You can control the voltage, but current drawn will be decided by the gadget only (for the given supply voltage.

If you get the instrument called "Kill a watt", it will indicate how much energy any gadget is consuming. This will give a guide line for you to save the energy usage.

There can not be any such equipment. Some people market equipment that improves PF and show reduced current as saved energy. But that's plain cheating.

If any such equipment were available, the government would have made it compulsary to use because of such huge shortage in electrical energy.

Rajesh

the government would have made it compulsory to use because of such huge shortage in electrical energy

ha ha ha ha! Do you think, our government is so vigilant and alert? Otherwise, they would have banned many things like neon signs of shops etc. illuminating through out the night, would have put twilight sensors to all lighting posts on the road, would have banned decorative lightings for various ceremonies (we have abundant ceremonies to celebrate in India. Almost every day has some ceremony).

I am sure, we have more than sufficient electricity... no shortage of electricity. Just we need to use it appropriately. We are used to justify our own use of electricity and criticise others. I congratulate OP for starting thinking of saving electricity and taking advice from others for his wish.

HI gsuhas,

For your kind information our state Maharashtra is facing shortage of 5500 MW as Chandarpur TPS is shut due to water shortage. We need 15500 MW but present generating capacity is only 10000 MW this is as per recent information available in Times of India dt.27-5-2010 page no.9, and quoted by our CM.

Suresh Sharma.

I know this my friend Suresh.

My point is if we ALL try to save and avoid the wastage, there will not be any shortage of electricity as on today.

Just to try to find out how much is the electricity consumption of the street lighting of BMC. Also try to access how much time these street lights are ON even though there is sufficient day light. Presently it is clear light from 6 morning to 7 evening. Whatever time, the street lights are on before 7 evening and after 6 morning, it is waste. Twilight sensors can save this energy.

Same approach for every utility, will save us of great energy. The available 10000 MW will be sufficient as on today. Govt only needs to plan for future needs.

There is no end to requirements, if no appropriation of use is done.

It's cheating only if you consider the real power you're consuming. But some places charge your electric usage on the VA drawn, not the real power consumed. In these places, correcting the power factor can turn into some considerable savings.

Just last week, I attended a presentation/demonstration that included a device connected to your electrical panel that suppressed the inrush spikes, that the meter sees, coming from the start-up of motors in refrigerators, air conditioners, furnaces, washer/driers etc. and even standard light bulbs. Power factor meters showed the results and it all made sense but I question its legality and science. If anyone knows what's going on there, please inform me. _{like I have to ask}

A couple of things he did show were a thin mat consisting of five layers,

1. thin clear plastic for protection
2. aluminum foil for reflectivity
3. polyethylene mesh for strength
4. aluminum foil for reflectivity
5. thin clear plastic for protection

The mat is rolled out in the attic and reflects solar radiation in summer and reflects interior heat in winter. It didn't appear to have much traditional insulating properties otherwise. You can do the same thing with an ordinary roll of aluminum foil though you won't have the mechanical strength afforded by the plastic covering and polyethylene mat. I don't see an issue if the attic doesn't see much traffic. I know it works. Years ago, I built a pick-up camper and wrapped the outside of the camper shell with aluminum foil and then plastic sheeting. On hot days, the inside of the camper was cool with just the top vent open and in freezing weather, I could heat it with a camp lantern. I don't have a problem with this product.

The other thing he was promoting was a paint with hollow micro spheres that you can paint on the interior or exterior of outside walls. He admitted its effectiveness was limited but measurable, but if it were not reasonable to be able to insulate the exterior walls, who wants to bore holes in the exterior siding and try to plug them neatly, this would give some measure of insulation by just painting it on, and it is tintable. Sounds interesting and if it doesn't cost $$$$, I'd try it next time I paint the walls.

We have good sun through the year. Use Solar water heating. solar cooker.

Electrical device which you are referring is nothing but introduction of capacitor for improving the power factor wherever some inductive load is there.If provided device wise initially the cost is more. If attached at the entry point top your home supply it will be economical. Get the power-factor measured and then calculate the specification for capacitor.All other suggestions are worth trying too.

kiran nawathe

Old school methods also work, like just doing without. I turned off my water heater. I have a YMCA membership and so I take my showers there. Only heat (or cool) the rooms you actually occupy. Get by with less convenience. I know it's not the American way but maybe that needs to change.

I am in the US, but I think you could apply some things I do there.

We heat with wood, so the only electricity I use for heating is to run a small blower fan. We cool with A/C, but not too cool and we constantly run multiple ceiling fans.

Save electricity by UNPLUGGING unused appliances. Most devices still draw some current even while switched off. Make sure if you use CFL's they are only in the lamps that are left on the most. My understanding is that they don't actually save you much if you are turning them on and off regularly. Turn down the temperature on your water heater to the lowest temperature you can get by with. (maybe 115F or so)

By burning wood, you are damaging nature than the electricty, though your personal expenses are coming down.

What do you suppose happened to most of the wood before man arrived? Some of it got preserved one way or another, but most of it burned. Many plants are dependent on fire to survive, in terms of access to light, opening seed shells, providing fertilizer, etc.

By burning as fuel, we are guaranteeing that most of the burning occurs in controlled conditions and in the winter, when rain can bring the fine ash and smoke down quickly and provide fertilizer. When it burns naturally, most of the fires will be much more intense, and in the summer and fall, when there is no rain.

It is true that in certain areas, smoke is trapped in valleys, so wood burning must be limited at times. Fortunately, I live above the level of trapped air.

I had a hall light which was left on all night and no outlet for nightlight, the light wont work with cfl so I bought a solar floodlight and mounted the solar panel outside the window and ran the wire inside and it works well. I plan to do this with some of the other lights where bright light isnt necessary. Maybe not a lot of savings but over time every little bit helps.

This is one more misconception.

Energy consumed in making the solar electric panel is much more than the energy it generates through out its life.

Hello,

If you install Solar Concentrator Stirling Engine System, you can almost reduce your electricity bill to nil.

Looking at the way the rates of the electricity are increasing day by day, the pay back for the Solar Concentrator Stirling Engine System will get reduced to 5 years

If you are interested please contact me

Email: sweetechnologies@gmail.com

Regards

Madhav Chowdhary

SWEE Technologies

Pune (India)

Use something like Nansulate thermal-insulation coating.

It's like a transparent paint ... cover the outside of your home with it (that's right, the outside) and it'll greatly reduce the heat transfer from hot air outside to your house's inside. In cold weather, where one tries to keep inside the house, it'S reduced heat costs by over 30% in some cases.

www. nansulate.com

The stuff's made in Florida (SE coast of the US) and is probably underavailable in India. Still, though, drop the maker an e-mail and maybe it is available or a shipment can be sent to you.

Cheers! DZ

Install a whole house exhaust fan, in the attic or on the roof. for low cost comfort at night when outdoor temperatures drop. Don't cut corners by using a cheap propeller model that mounts over the main exhaust register or you'll think you're living on one of the runways at your airport. The addition of ceiling fans can bring additional comfort and allow you to set your thermostat higher during the cooling season. Speaking of thermostats make sure you have a high quality progammable type and make certain you understand how to operate it; they can be complicated but it's not brain surgery. Try blocking the summer sun before it hits your windows. Add insulation to that already there in your attic. Storm doors and high R rated windows can have a fast payback. Turn off computers, printers,TVs and other electronic devices at the power outlet. It's the equivalent to turning off the water faucets when done. Opening a book instead of turning on the TV saves a lot of power and brain cells. Good luck. Lou Bindner

http://www.nansulate.com/

mentioned by someone else very good stuff

Solar power vents to get the heat out of the attic will help also. An attic can get as much as 20 to 30 degrees higher than the outside air which will cause the house to heat up if there is poor insulation or air leakage between the two spaces.

The use of solar power for interior lighting can be used with the new LED lights that are now being used for the truck marker lights, not very pretty, but very efficient. Cost is high but much lower than off the shelf commercial residential lights.

Keep all the lights off except one.Use Natural light from the Windows.When no-one else is home you could run an efficient eden pure space heater just where its needed.

Thanks for the flow of information from many experts..

Being in India is fortunate enough to avoid room heaters except at a few places. But the humidity level is very high which is causing bacterial infections to the low immunity group.

Coming back to power saving matter, as someone advised I am thinking of buying 1 x 30 mf PF / 250v capacitor and connect it to the out of my main switch from where the supply goes directly to the MCBs and distributed. The motors of Fridge, Washing machine, water pump, Mixer etc happen to the culprits in eating up lots of energy. That too at a place where normal line voltage is not steady due to bad or load-unbalanced transformers could be leading to draw more ampere by equipments like above as well as lights, fans, television etc..

It is heard that adding a PF capacitor to the supply line can help power factor correction and make the ampere steady for the load.