NO HARM IN REPEATING GOOD THINGS

Energy Consumption tips

• For Individual Flats
  With the changing attitudes of people all over the world about energy conservation, we'd like to present some energy saving tips for you to consider. Keeping in mind that your comfort at home is a high priority, these tips and little known facts are a way not only to help you lower your energy bills, but at the same time keep you comfortable in your own home. Where can you best save power in a household? Lighting alone accounts for over nine percent of the annual power consumption. If we follow a few simple tips the power consumption can actually come down by approx. 20 percent."
  • Clean the dust accumulated on lamps, bulbs, tube lights and fans. Clean your light fixtures regularly.
  • Use dim light (low wattage lamps) in Galleries, Lobbies, Balconies and bathrooms.
  • Turn off lights when leaving a room.
  • Do not shut and open the door of the refrigerator frequently. More electricity is used in doing so.
  • Do not keep TV, tape recorder and music system in standby mode. Power switch of these should be off when not in use to save electricity. The TV set consumes over five percent of the total power consumption. If you turn off the TV set instead of leaving it on stand-by, you save up to 70 kilowatt hours per year.
  • Make maximum use of sunlight during the day. You may not need artificial lights like bulbs and tubes during the day. Drapes or curtains on windows & doors are to be drawn apart during day time, for natural light to reduce need for electrical lights inside the home.
  • Geysers consume the maximum amount of electricity. Use them to heat only that amount of water that is required. Thermostat can be set to a lower temperature i.e. 45 to 50 degrees.
  • Reduce the usage of lifts. Do not allow children to play with elevators..
  • Provide task lighting over desks (i.e. Table Lamps for reading) etc., so that activities can be carried on without illuminating entire rooms.
  • If possible, put lamps in corners of rooms, where they can reflect light from two wall surfaces instead of one.
  • Use compact fluorescent bulbs in fixtures that are on for more than two hours a day. Compact fluorescent bulbs will give an incandescent bulb's warm, soft light, while using up to 75 percent less electricity. They also last about 10 times longer. Typically, a 23-watt compact fluorescent bulb can replace a 90- or 100-watt incandescent bulb.
  • Use dimmable bulbs wherever possible.
  • Children are advised to study in one room and with individual low voltage table lamps, which provides sufficient illumination for reading. Advise them to switch off the individual lamps. Children to utilize morning hours & broad day Sun light for studies, rather than burning mid-night lamps in its verbatim sense.
• For Conserving Electricity
  • Use ISI marked electrical appliances and equipments.
  • Substitute bulbs with Tungsten Filament Lamp (TFL) tubes. They are cost effective and last long too.
  • Switch over to CFL Lamps. Tube lights or bulbs consume more electricity as compared to a CFL bulb. By replacing only two 75 Watt light bulbs that are on four hours a day by two 15 watt energy-saving lamps, you can save almost 18 Kilo Watt hours per year.
  • One can also plan to switchover from an electric geyser to a gas one.
• For Housing Complexes
• Install photoelectric controls or timers to make sure that outdoor lighting is turned off during the day.
• In the EPABX rooms the working of AC units to be reduced by four to five hours per day & maintain inside temperature to the level not below 19 degree centigrade or not below the limits as prescribed by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
• Open Area or Yard area lightings to be switched-off at 06.00 hours or when the sunrise starts and again switched-on only after 19.00 hours or whenever the sun sets, as per the season of the year.
• Tube Lights in common areas and staircase landings to be reduced to alternate ones and or one tube light from twin tube light fitting units be reduced to one tube light.
• Water pumps to be switched–off during “non-peak utility hours” say between 11.00 hrs to 14.00 hrs and after 21.00 hrs to 05.00 hrs, after due notification to the Residents.
• Number of electrical lighting points to be reduced to one per room, in side the flats. All additional fittings to be removed / permanently switched off.
• “Electrical Audits” be conducted for the colonies, if not done in the last 5-7 years or if lot many newer installations have gradually been done, to identify opportunities of “energy saving” through operational changes / improvement (Both short term and long term). The short term and cost effective measures to be implemented immediately.
• Wherever, two Elevators / Lifts are provided in a building only single Lift to be operated during “non-peak hours” (for example for the periods other than from 07.00 hrs. to 10.00 hrs. and 17.00 hrs. to 22.00 hrs., when the second lift could be switched-off).
• Residents in Colonies to be / are requested to:
• a. Use elevator / lift only for going-up beyond 3 floors / flights since, climbing up by stairs is healthy and keeps one fit
• b. Do not use elevators / lifts for coming down. Maximize use of stairs for coming down.
• c. To maximize on consumption of power for household electrical appliances :
• i. Avoid use of household Electrical appliances like Hot Plates, Toasters, Water Heaters, Milk warmers, Household floor mills, grinders/mixers/blenders, Ovens etc., these being energy guzzlers.
• ii. Stop using electric Microwave Owens, being major energy consumer.
• iii. Reduce numbers of opening and closing of water taps for taking small quantities of water, instead take sufficient large number of water, this avoids frequent start and stop of water pumps there by reducing power consumption.
• iv. Switch-off all appliances from its main switches, while these are not in use and closed for the day, like TVs, VCRs, DVDs and Computers etc.
• v. Recharge the “Chargeable Batteries” during day time to avoid such energy consumption during night time, which helps in reduction of peak load power requirements from system.

For Household Electrical Appliances

REFRIGERATOR

Do you know that there are chances that your Refrigerator/s account for 25% of your electricity energy usage. The condenser coils behind or underneath your refrigerator help it get rid of the heat it takes out of the food compartment. When dust builds up on the coils they don't work as efficiently, so the motor has to work much harder. Make sure the refrigerator is not up against an outside facing wall.

• Keep the fridge as full as possible.
• Make sure that the refrigerator is not placed against outside facing wall or walls exposed to the direct sunlight.
• Keep your refrigerator and freezer at the right temperature. If they are only 2-3 degrees colder than necessary, your energy consumption may go up by approx. 25 %.
• Cleanout beneath and behind the fridge every month or so, for better air flow & cleaning of dust deposits to get better heat transfer.
• Make sure the door is sealed tightly. If it's not, you're wasting energy.
• Do not put uncovered liquids in the refrigerator. The liquids give off vapors that add to the compressor workload.
• Allow hot food to cool off before putting it in the refrigerator.
• Plan ahead and remove all ingredients for each meal at one time.
• If your fridge is over 10 years old, consider getting a new one.

OVENS / MICROVEN

A typical home uses 200-700 kilo Watt-hours per year with its oven. To become more energy efficient with your range/oven, follow these tips:

• Test the thermostat in your oven to be sure it measures temperatures accurately.
• Every time you open your oven door during cooking, you lose 5 to 7 degrees or more.
• Microwaves use around 50% less energy than conventional ovens: they're most efficient for small portions or defrosting.
• Check the seal on your oven door to see if there are cracks or tears in it
• Develop the habit of "lids-on" cooking to permit lower temperature settings.
• Keep reflector pans beneath stovetop heating elements bright and clean.
• Carefully measure water used for cooking to avoid having to heat more than is needed.
• Begin cooking on highest heat until liquid begins to boil. Then lower the heat control settings and allow food to simmer until fully cooked.
• Cook as much of the meal in the oven at one time as possible.
• Rearrange oven shelves before turning your oven on - and don't peek at food in the oven! Every time you open the oven door, 4°-5° C is lost.
• There is no need to preheat the oven for broiling or roasting.
• When preheating an oven for baking, time the preheat period carefully. Five to eight minutes should be sufficient.
• Use your microwave oven whenever possible, as it draws less than half the power of its conventional oven counterpart and cooks for a much shorter amount of time.
• For large items, stove-top cooking is most efficient, especially with gas.

WASHING MACHINES

• Washing machines can account for as much as 20 % of the electricity you use.
• Use Cold water, as almost 90 % of the energy consumed by washing machines goes to heating the water. Set the washing machine temperature to cold or warm and the rinse temperature to cold as often as possible.
• Each wash cycle uses upto 60 to 90 liters of water. Use washing machine on full load and plan washing periodicity to save on water too.
• Follow detergent instructions carefully. Adding too much detergent actually hampers effective washing action and may require more energy in the form of extra rinses.
• Wash only full loads of clothing- but do not overload machine. Sort laundry and schedule washes so that a complete job can be done with a few cycles of the machine carrying its full capacity, rather than a greater number of cycles with light loads.
• Soak or pre-wash the cloths for effective cleaning.

AIR CONDITIONING

Windows

• Your windows do more than let light into your home. During the summer they let heat in and during the winter they let heat out. Check air gaps around windows every 6 month as it may have shrinkage and has lost it's seal.
• The gaps you can find around the windows and doors leads to A C loss. You can use a candle to look for drafts. If the flame flickers or dances, you've found a place to seal.
• Draperies on your windows help reduce your energy loss.
• Follow detergent instructions carefully. Adding too much detergent actually hampers effective washing action and may require more energy in the form of extra rinses.
• Wash only full loads of clothing- but do not overload machine. Sort laundry and schedule washes so that a complete job can be done with a few cycles of the machine carrying its full capacity, rather than a greater number of cycles with light loads.
• Soak or pre-wash the cloths for effective cleaning.

Air Conditioners

• To cool your house efficiently, you air conditioner has to be cool itself. So try to keep it in the shade. An air conditioner exposed to direct sunlight uses 5 percent more energy than a shaded one. If your air conditioner is already in the sun, you can build a simple shade screen for it.
• Don't block the air flow at the back of the Air Conditioner.
• Don't switch your air conditioner thermostat to a colder setting when you first turn it on. It won't cool your home any faster and it will waste energy when you forget to turn it back up.
• Minimize the amount of direct heat entering your home by pulling shades and curtains on hot days.
• Have your air conditioning unit checked every 6 months. If the Freon level is not correct, you will waste a lot of energy and your home will never be as cool as you want it.
• Every time you open a door you're letting in new air that needs to be de-humidified, thus making your air conditioner work much harder. Set the temperature as high as possible while still being comfortable.
• Set your thermostat to as high as comfort permits, may be a few degrees higher. When the weather is mild, turn off the AC and open the windows. You can use combination of AC with ceiling fan Ceiling fans consume as little energy as a 60 watt bulb. Ceiling fans are often used instead of air conditioning, but it's not necessarily one or the other. Fans produce air currents that carry heat away from the skin, so even air conditioned rooms feel cooler when one is running. Ceiling fans save energy in reverse as this pushes warm air caught near the ceiling down to where you can feel it.
• Close your blinds and curtains during the hottest part of the day.
• Close cooling vents in unused rooms and keep doors to unused rooms closed.
• Check and clean or replace air filters every month.
• Clean the outside condenser coil once a year.

Driving

• To obtain optimum fuel consumption, maintain car speed as far as possible, between 55 to 60 km. Per hour.
• Do not use choke, unless necessary (only necessary in cold season or, if car is not properly tuned)
• When choke is used, put it off as soon as engine is warmed up.
• When there is starting trouble, depress clutch to start the engine(this would take load off engine)
• Always start in 1st gear (to get max. power). Run upto appx. 10 km. per hour before changing to 2nd gear; 20/25 km. p. h. before changing to 3rd and about 30/32 km. p. h. before changing to 4th