In ancient times, when Alessandro Volta conducted his first experiments, and Thomas Edison looked at the invented light bulb, could they have thought how the lives of their descendants would change in connection with their discoveries?Nowadays it is impossible to imagine life without electricity.This is a resource on which everything is tied: information, data, household needs, comfort, communication, leisure.An accident in the power grid of one capital city paralyzed him.The work of maternity hospitals, hospitals, water utilities stopped, schools and residential buildings were cut off, more than 3 thousand citizens were stuck in the elevator, and some, as they say, were unable to get out of their apartments equipped with smart home systems.In a sense, we have all become hostages of electricity.Although the stranded citizens still literally became them.
By increasing the number of electrical appliances in our lives, we unwittingly increase the load not only on city power grids, but also on our wallet.In our mothers' and grandmothers' houses there was a TV, a refrigerator, and a select few lucky ones had a washing machine.What works and consumes electricity in our homes leaves our grandmothers in awe with its quantity and functionality.
However, all the pleasures in our lives come at a price.And for the enthusiastic look of the grandmothers - including.Every time, looking at electricity bills, it begins to seem as if magical gnomes live in the apartment, who amuse themselves by scrolling the meter wheel, speeding up its movement two or even three times.But no, these are not gnomes.These are our insatiable electronic friends.
To curb the appetites of imaginary gnomes and ease the fate of our wallet, we tried to figure out whether it is, in principle, possible to save on electricity.
To do this, we studied the savings methods offered online, both obvious and incredible.We invite you to familiarize yourself with the results of our work.
Obvious ways to save energy
The most obvious one, lying on the surface, is to turn off the light when not in use.If your memory fails you, or you have so much to do that you don’t have time to reach out and flip the switch, there is a way out.Motion sensors or presence sensors.They are installed in rooms and react to the appearance of a person in the room.They turn on automatically when you enter the room and turn off when you leave it.Ask the installers to set the sensors so that they do not react to cats and other pets.Otherwise, the payment for electricity, instead of the expected reduction, will skyrocket.
Replace incandescent light bulbs with their energy-efficient counterparts.And even better - LED ones.They consume much less energy, while lasting longer and shining brighter.If you install sectional lighting and equip the room with several light elements, you can use them in turn as needed.A dimmer (an element that allows you to adjust the brightness of lighting) with constant use will also help reduce energy costs for lighting.Experienced people recommend choosing lamps for rooms according to the degree of their use.Obviously, you can hang a dimmer, but less energy-consuming lamp in the pantry than in the living room or kitchen.New generation lamps are more resistant to voltage surges.Well, the last piece of advice regarding lamps is that you should not be lazy to regularly wipe the dust off them.Dusty lamps give a dim light and use more energy to pointlessly heat the dust.
Buy electrical appliances with high energy efficiency (class A+)
Modern equipment knows how to spend energy wisely.Most dishwashers, washing machines of the latest model and other devices are equipped with an energy-saving eco mode.Use it often.If possible, select the lowest oven, washing machine and dishwasher temperatures.
The main energy costs go to heating the device; by heating it to a minimum, you can save a lot.
The load level of the washing machine is also important.Load it in accordance with the technical documentation.Overloading or underloading will increase energy consumption.The same applies to vacuum cleaners with unwashed filters and full dust collectors, air conditioners with uncleaned insides, refrigerators with ice, kettles with scale and other everyday joys.We remember that heating any excess material increases your costs.A washing machine and dishwasher connected to centralized hot water will spend less energy heating it.But instead of spending for electricity, you will increase the amount of payment for hot water supply.And here you need to weigh which resource costs you more.
This point, of course, is more logical to include in the list of incredible things, but let it be here anyway.Unused household appliances should always be unplugged.When turned on, they consume quite a lot of electricity.It is ideal if, when designing electrical wiring, de-energizing of all sockets is provided with a slight movement of the hand.Except for the one that powers the refrigerator.Then you can safely leave home without fear of fires, power surges and energy losses.
If you remove the gadget from charging immediately after it finishes, you save energy and contribute to the long service life of the gadget itself and its charger.
Appliances that you use regularly throughout the day do not need to be unplugged every time.For example, it would be best to send the computer to sleep mode.Because for some devices, turning on and off is more energy-consuming than being in sleep mode.Be sure to remove discs from the drives.When turned on, additional energy is spent on their promotion.
If you still haven’t installed a separate toggle switch to turn off the sockets, use surge protectors for your equipment with the ability to turn off the power.
And a little more about technology.In many high-rise buildings, in accordance with established standards, an electric rather than a gas stove is provided.
Therefore, buy an induction cooker for apartments on high floors.It is specifically designed to save electricity.But it will be even better if you purchase dishes with a flat bottom that exactly fit the size of the burner for the stove.And when cooking, you will cover the pan with a lid.And you will finish cooking dinner on a cooling burner, turning it off 5-10 minutes before it’s ready.And by the way, we iron delicate delicate items with the iron already turned off and cooling.
Kettle?In addition to timely descaling, we recommend that you pour only as much water into it as you need.
Now to the refrigerator.And reforms will not escape him.The refrigerator should not be close to walls or other surfaces.Especially if the surfaces are heated - for example, an oven.This will prevent it from overheating.Don’t forget to check the rubber seal and the presence of ice.The main function of a refrigerator is to protect your food by keeping it at a low temperature.And if there is a heat source from the outside, the refrigerator will try to cool with double the (electric) energy.At your expense, of course.
You can also say a few words about movies.High-quality movies consume more energy, but we won’t suggest you save money on watching movies.This is blasphemy.
The concept of repair itself can make a small, but still significant contribution to your salary savings.For those who didn’t skip physics at school, it is obvious that a light-colored wall covering will save electricity and heat, since, unlike a dark one, it does not absorb it.This also includes wiping windows and heating appliances from dust.Dust is a known heat absorber.And if, in addition, your windows have increased light transmittance and energy efficiency, this will save you some more money.
Choose housing with windows facing south.Then you will receive heat and light directly from the sun, and completely free of charge.But this bonus is balanced by the fact that in the summer you will have to turn on the split system more often.The south side heats up very quickly, and in warm weather such rooms without air conditioning may not be comfortable.Therefore, keep in mind that small savings in winter can result in large expenses in summer.
A significant part of the heat (and, accordingly, the loss of energy for heating the room) goes into the walls to which the radiators are attached.Installing heat reflectors between the wall and the battery will allow you to use the generated heat without the cost of heating the street.According to experts, this measure allows you to raise the air temperature in a living room by 2-3 degrees without additional energy costs.
Now let's move on to those saving methods that in our reality are more incredible than feasible.Nevertheless, we will tell you about them.
Less likely ways to save
Replace your home's wiring with more efficient wiring by arranging power sources so that you can eliminate the need for additional cables and carriers.Well, since you are re-wiring anyway, take care of the switch for everything except the refrigerator, which was described above.
Eliminate heat loss.Specialists with a thermal imager will tell you about the weak points of your home.And in accordance with the diagnosis, it will be necessary to strengthen the weak, insulate the cold, and dry the damp.In most cases, owners will have to additionally insulate the walls and replace windows.
If you are the happy owner of individual heating, we recommend that you install a boiler with a thermostat.It is able to regulate the heating temperature, preventing it from rising above the set one.The absence of additional heating equals saving a small fraction of electricity.
Install a Smart Home system in your home.It automatically sets optimal energy consumption.With this system, you can control the electricity in your apartment yourself, and remotely.In our opinion, the only downside of the system will be told to you by comrades who suffered from the 2015 accident.On the other hand, such force majeure events are rare and do not cover all the benefits of a smart home.
If you are afraid of the uprising of machines and believe in the victory of artificial intelligence over human intelligence, this option is also not for you.
Install electricity generators.Windy, solar.And become energy independent.You thought this was completely out of the realm of science fiction, right?In vain.
If you are planning to move to hot countries, keep in mind that in Greece, for example, solar panels are used as a source of energy, because centralized electricity is very expensive.
Installation of a two-phase meter.The idea is to transfer the main business to the night, when the load on the city power grid is minimal, and accordingly the tariffs are quite economical.Before changing the meter, please make sure that you are a night owl and that leading a nocturnal lifestyle (in particular, washing dishes, laundry and using electrical appliances) is not burdensome for you.And also make sure that your neighbors are also owls, or take care of additional sound insulation so as not to incur the wrath of your neighbors.
In many regions, representatives of power grids even offer to install two-phase meters for free.But practice has shown that there are still discrepancies in indicators and not entirely correct calculations.Therefore, people are in no hurry to change their usual meters to two-phase ones, despite all their possible benefits.
And the most unreliable way to save electricity, included in the top 3 employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the fire service, is independent manipulation of the wiring, as a result of which the line bypasses the meter.Constructed without knowledge of basic technical safety standards and the laws of physics, such structures become causes of fires and other disasters.Not to mention the fact that city services can check the equipment and figure out your secret scheme.For an experienced energy engineer, such a search will not take much time.And then, instead of saving, you will be forced to pay quite a small fine for your initiative.