Do an energy audit

Challenges in maintaining a standard of living varies greatly around the world, it is impossible to provide the exact steps to reduce electricity consumption in each scenario. An energy audit will help you to recognize, however, when exactly is your power and how to reduce the use of IT.

Once you understand where our power is for the whole house is easy to recommend ways to reduce energy waste, which is usedCurrent that is used to do the same job that a lesser amount of electricity could be, while continuing to do the same comfort. This is an important point to understand, to save on electricity does not mean you have to live in a house in the cold dark to see significant energy savings and use that in most cases, significantly reducing energy at home the addition of some simple changes will have around the house.

So where do I start looking?

By far the largestthose that consume more energy to homes can be attributed to heating and cooling needs. Heaters and air conditioners have a high specific power and if used frequently during hot weather or cold, what the electricity bills may end up as a shock. Now you may be surprised to know that the location of some of these sources can be comforting enormous amounts of energy, while maintaining the same very comfortable. Here are some practical tips to consider:

Hanging sheets or curtainsin a room open, to keep heat in common areas

Add box valances tend to heat loss through poorly insulated windows, air movement past add insulation, carpets and double glazing to reduce heat transfer between the home and external environment to reduce

Wear appropriate clothing to improve human comfort in a less comfortable

Use localized heating during cold periods

Use local cooling or evaporative cooling in cold but dryclimate only some of these things are to be taken into consideration, but a detailed energy audit is the best heating and cooling practices locate your home to do.

Lighting

Although the power of lighting is a bit 'down, the lights tend to be used for long running times, so we can immediately see the long-term financial incentives to replace less efficient bulbs with more expensive, but less power hungry or fluorescent LED (Light EmittingDiode) bulbs.

Kettle If you are a heavy drinker of tea or coffee, costs can run on electricity bills as are users of large power boilers. A simple advice to help reduce electricity costs for the operation of a water heater is your cup with water and then pour into the pot before heating. In this way we know exactly how much water to a boil. Most people only think of a lot of water, which included 3 or 4 times that the hottest water that is actuallyconsumed. If you cook a few cups of water a day, this could easily change common save about 50 dollars a year on your electricity bill.

Refrigerators If you have an old refrigerator, it can have bad seals so that the cold air escapes. The refrigerator has a working extra hard to keep your food cold, and this may be the use of food to chew. A power meter can be made from work, as the efficient operation of the refrigerator and you may decide that a more energy efficient model can saveconsiderable money in the long run.

Computer and TV screens

Plasma screens are generally the largest energy users, such as LCD screens and LED screens less than LCD screens, but it seems significant changes in the market. If you have a lot of TV, or see you spend a lot of time surfing the Internet, the power consumption of the screen can be an important consideration.

Standby

Think of standby power as a dripping tap that we can not hear orbut gradually see your power. Many plug packs, chargers, stereos, washing machines, drawing, television, computers and a variety of other devices, the power, when they are both from, or there is nothing in them. This is called standby, and even small streams only accounts for a series of energy through the system, this is done consistently run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, energy consumption so small, has increased considerably.

To combat the low standbyApplications can be:

Purchase switching power (lighter versions of heavy packages electromagnetic force)
Manual switch off appliances when not in use
The purchase of a Power Board, which automatically switches off power to devices when a device is turned off. This is useful when many individual components to run off the same socket as system.As stereo or computer is an example that I found the standby power consumption of my desktop computer at home and wants to leaveconnected for 10 years would cost more than electricity in the whole computer cost me to buy it first. Dragging my computer from the wall when not in use, I will gather some significant savings.

The calculation of costs for the operation of a device:

You can calculate how much an appliance by multiplying its power by the time he spent on the cost per unit of electricity. For example, if I have a 100 W light for 5 hours a nightElectricity costs 20c per unit (one unit = 1000W per hour). Then I will spend 365 x 5 x 0.1 x 0.2 = $ 36.50 per year in a row that light. Of course, these values ​​may differ between countries and regions, but gives us a rough idea of ​​costs.

If I have a light that cost $ 10 more, but consumes only 20W invested, I would save 80% off my electricity consumption for lighting. In the above case, I would like to start saving in a few months and more than 10 years I would save almost$ 300! In addition, some of the energy saving lamps much longer and therefore will reduce the time to replace the lamp and the cost position.

Develop the power consumption of devices:

Some devices on the label how much electricity they use to say. For example, a light could say 60W or 25W, etc. and a TV-200W or something like a kettle and I can say is 2400W. The calculation of the cost of operation of these devices is relatively easy since we simply believe that this power isconsistently used when the device is switched on.

Calculation of energy consumption for appliances sporadic use of electricity, such as refrigerators, washing machines, computers, etc., using a power meter, which adds all the power used for a long period of time. These inexpensive devices can be purchased for about $ 20 and are valuable for the operation of an energy audit at home, or at least the beginning of an idea of ​​how much power each appliance uses.

What to do:

Here wetouched some way, power is usually lost at home and in some practical steps to reduce energy bills sometimes frightening. To live is to live intelligently and with a sustainable approach, not only to significantly reduce carbon emissions and increase comfort, but it can also save considerable hard-earned money every time the electricity bill comes around. If you want to reduce the electricity bill, it's time to see where all your electricity is used, andTo make the changes necessary to reduce energy waste in your home. Do an energy audit can be a good way to find out exactly what works, and yet some simple calculations themselves and to make investments in energy efficient equipment or changing some simple habits could already see on the way to lower your energy bills electricity in the future.