Saving electricity Electricity saving tips M. Vrábel S. Šefčík Care for the enviroment at school a comenius project
Tips for saving electricity: While solar power and wind energy offer us a greener future when it comes to power generation, the cleanest watt is the one that doesn't have to be generated. Energy efficiency is the low hanging fruit of greenhouse gas reduction. By taking a little care with how we use electricity, we not only lighten the load on the environment, but save cash too. Electricity saving example: computers: I'm writing this by the light of a 1 watt LED lamp and on my laptop with power saving features switched on - using 50 watts per hour maximum. Back some years ago, I would have been basking under the light of a powerful incandescent globe and using a desktop computer with a 17" CRT screen - around 300 watts all told. So what do those savings come to in terms of carbon emissions? The following are some rough calculations based on coal fired power generation for just the computer aspect (although I'm mostly solar powered now, so the reduction is greater): Laptop = 50w x 10 hours a day x 365 days = 182.5 kilowatts Desktop = 300s x 10 hours a day x 365 = 1095 kilowatts A huge difference as you can see and in terms of carbon emissions, the savings by using a laptop are around 1360 pounds annually for me - well over half a ton. In the case of coal fired electricity, each kilowatt you save not only puts cash back into your pockets, but also avoids 1.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions being generated; not to mention all the other environmentally nasty stuff associated with power generation. So there's the first tip. If you use a desktop computer, when it does come time to buy another computer; consider a notebook instead. If you're not ready to acquire another computer, there's other tips below you can use with your current system. The following are some more tips on how you can save electricity in the home and in the office.
Don t Leave Electrical Appliances on Standby Many of us with use the remote to switch off the TV or stereo, leaving the appliance running on standby. This actually means the appliance is still using up electricity and wastes a considerable amount of energy. By switching off at the main power button, or even the socket, you could be saving both energy and money. Items left on standby use up to 85% of the energy they would use if fully switched on. An extra million tonnes of carbon will be released into the atmosphere through this power wastage.
Tumble Dryer Electric tumble dryers are commonly the second biggest energy user in the home, after the fridge. They are obviously used a lot less, but still use a huge amount of electricity when switched on. You can avoid using the dryer so often by line drying clothes whenever possible or using an indoor clothes dryer when the weather is bad. If you do need to use the dryer, then ensure the clothes are as dry as possible after washing, eg, they have gone through a fast spin so that there is minimum excess water. This will reduce drying time considerably.
Lighting In most homes, about 10-15% of the electricity bill is for lighting so energy saving light bulbs can cut your costs considerably. Traditional bulbs waste a lot of energy by turning it into heat but energy saving bulbs work in the same way as fluorescent lights, the tubes coating glows brightly as an electric current passed through gas in the tube.
They may be more expensive to buy than traditional bulbs, but they are worth the investment as last over 10 times longer and use up to 4 times less energy. Where you would use a 100w ordinary bulb, you would only need a 20-25w energy saving bulb. With savings like this, changing bulbs throughout your house could really cut your electricity costs. No matter what type of lighting you are using, always turn the lights off when you leave a room.
Solar Garden Lights There are a number of different solar powered lights available at the moment for use in the garden. These lights are highly energy efficient and convenient as do not require external extension leads or special electric fittings. These lights contain solar cells which convert the suns energy into electricity. They charge up during the daylight and light up as it gets dark. They are not usually hugely bright but are less intrusive than electric lights and look nice in the flowerbeds.
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