This is the second in a series of articles that have become The energy saving challenge.The first article focused on helping people save energy and money on their lighting bill. For now, the focus is on how your appliances can cost you unnecessary money, use unprofitable energy, and how you can do better for the environment and your wallet no matter your circumstances.
If you are looking for a new refrigerator or freezer, dishwasher or oven or any other appliance for your home, now is the time to make some quality decisions. It’s not just about looks, you know, these days it’s equally important to select a model that works not just in the cooling / washing / appearance department, but also in the energy usage department.
Look for a model that has the highest energy rating. A model with a high energy rating can save you a lot of money over the life of the appliance. Plus, you can know that you’ve made a decision that is better for the environment, too. Now let’s get into some useful details.
Refrigerators and freezers:
Did you know that your fridge and freezer represent a large proportion of the energy you use in your home? The reason for this is that they tend to run all day and all night, every day of the year. Learning how to use your refrigerator and freezer efficiently can make a big difference in the amount of energy you use. This is all good news for the environment and for your electricity bill. Most people are not looking for a new refrigerator and there are some important things you can do to improve the performance of your current refrigerator and freezer.
The first is to give you a bit of a tweak in terms of your stamps.
Are they airtight?
- You can check this by putting a piece of paper between the body of the refrigerator and the door. Close the door, and then gently pull out the paper. If it comes off easily, then your seal is not tight enough and that is costing you money 24/7. It may be that the door hinges can be adjusted to improve the seal or it may be time to replace the seals.
- I recently read on an energy company’s website that an old, inefficient refrigerator can use three times more energy than a new one. That means it costs you three times more to run. If you can check the seal and improve or replace it, you will definitely benefit.
Many homes have an additional refrigerator in the garage, basement, or even shed.
The party fridge, the beer fridge, the Christmas overflow fridge, whatever the name in your house, it’s costing you money. Up to $ 200 a year! So ask yourself a couple of questions:
- Does this fridge need to be on all the time or could you just turn it on when really needed? This will reduce your energy consumption and save you a great deal of money.
- Do you really need the second fridge? I mean, how bad is the refrigeration situation? Was it ever a good idea and now the circumstances have changed?
- Perhaps the solution is to sell it to someone who really needs it.
Now we can see some behavioral changes that can really reduce your energy consumption when it comes to the refrigerator.
First is the size.
- Is your refrigerator the right size for your needs? We tend to have our refrigerators for a long time and often use a refrigerator that is no longer optimal for our needs. It used to have a very large fridge because there were five of us in the house and we needed the room. Now there are only three of us and we have a medium sized fridge, however most of the time we could probably get away with one that was even a little smaller.
Refrigerators apparently work most efficiently when they are fairly full.
- That’s the way they like it best. So if you’re looking out your fridge door and there’s not much in there and this is what it generally looks like, I can suggest that it’s over capacity in the refrigerator department and that a reduction might be worth considering.
A couple of other tips to help your refrigerator keep more money in your wallet and create less greenhouse gases for the environment.
- It is best not to locate your refrigerator or freezer near your oven, or even if the sun is out. It just makes it work harder and you know what that means!
- Refrigerators need space; Make sure there is a space in the back near the ventilation coils so they can work efficiently. About 80 mm is recommended.
- And last but not least, give the back of the fridge a little dust every now and then, this also helps the ventilation system, and you will be amazed at what makes it move around the back of the fridge when he is not looking. .
Dishwasher:
Mine is my husband and son and I think they both have a 50 star energy rating. Seriously, washing dishes in the sink is a good thing, and personally I think it’s underrated as a family activity.
Still, if you must use a dishwasher, think about its energy rating when you buy it and see how many of these tips you can adopt in its use.
- Only run the dishwasher with a full load; uses the same amount of power (and water!) whether it’s full or half full, so it makes sense to wait until it’s full, right?
- Then don’t let the machine dry the dishes for you; program it to stop before the drying cycle and simply open the door; the dishes will dry themselves without the need for additional power.
Your stove or oven:
Again, if you’re buying a new one, choose the appliance with the highest energy rating you can afford; It will continue to save you money throughout its useful life.
A great tip is to only use your oven when you really need it.
- Pans, pressure cookers and crock pots and even microwave ovens are more energy efficient if what you are cooking can be created in them.
- If you are going to use your oven, check that the door closes completely and that there is a good seal when it is closed. There’s no point paying all that energy to heat it up if you’re just going to escape out the door.
- This applies equally to electric or gas ovens.
Now to the cooking surface.
- Did you know that just putting the lid on the pot will substantially decrease the amount of energy needed to cook what it contains?
- Plus, if you make sure the correct pot is placed on the correct cooktop or burner (not too big, not too small), you will also save substantially on both energy and time. Not to mention the money!
So how can you save energy in the laundry room?
That washing machine now gets the energy efficiency treatment. You already know the deal with the energy rating if you are in the market for new appliances, right? I know you have a good idea what to look for now.
The first tip is to wash with cold water.
- I have not washed in hot or lukewarm water for decades and would love to know how much energy and money it has saved me. I also recently had to buy a new machine and opted for one of those front-loading varieties. I have to say that I really like it and it consumes less water and less power than an equivalent top-loading machine, so I seem to have made a good decision with that one.
- As with the dishwasher, you will find that your washing machine will use the same amount of energy regardless of whether there are few items or a full load, so it makes sense to wait until you have a full load of laundry if you are trying. to save energy so you have more money in your pocket at the end of the month.
Now the nightmare of my life, clothes dryers.
They gave me one as a wedding present and I had it for about 15 years before I finally coughed up her latest load of fluffy clothes. However, I had used it less and less when I realized how much money it cost me each time I used it. Finally, for the last three or four years, it was only used in weather emergencies or mismanagement on my part.
- If it’s a sunny day, hang your clothes outside. I have a clothesline, but I know others who use clotheslines and they work well too. The sun dries them perfectly, the breeze softens the fabrics and they smell great when you put them back in.
- If you use your dryer, never put dripping clothes in, always spin them first and make sure the lint filter is cleaned very regularly so that the machine can weave its magic for you as efficiently as possible.
- Maybe you could try drying your clothes and just finish them in the dryer as a temporary measure on a wonderfully sunny day.
There are many other energy-using appliances in our home that you may not have thought of.
Things like the iron, the microwave, the television, the computer, the DVD / video machine, stereo, game consoles … How the heck did we become so dependent on energy for our daily lives?
Most of these gadgets now contain digital clocks as well as standby lights. Now this is all very well, but how many clocks does a room need? At home in the kitchen I have a clock on the wall, one on the stove and one in the microwave. In the living room I think at the last count there were four clocks on the TV cabinet! What is this obsession with clocks in appliances?
Now to get to the point. I will give you an everyday example as a way to do it: the microwave oven. Most, if not all, households now own such a device. Almost all of them come with a digital display that tells you all sorts of useful information like temperature and length of cook time while you’re using them and that’s great, but once your work is done, they just sit there with your little one. display that tells you the time. And using energy.
- I use my microwave for less than 30 minutes a day and yet I let it use energy (and cost me money) 24 hours a day. That makes no sense.
- Turn it off at the switch when you are not using it.
- You won’t mind, it won’t stop working.
- Nothing terrible will happen.
The same goes for your stereo.
- If you’re not listening to it, turn it off.
- Not just in the front, that will just leave you there in standby mode, using power.
- Turn it off at the switch.
And when you go to bed at night, all those things in the entertainment cabinet with their little red and green lights begging you to turn them on again, is costing you money. Don’t listen, look behind the cabinet and flip the switch!
Now here is the big sale for me on this one.
All those clocks, all those little red and green standby lights (including the ones on your computer!) Add about 10% to your energy bill.That means if you get in the habit of turning them off when they’re not being used, you could save up to 10% on each and every energy bill you receive starting today. Over the course of your life, that can add a lot of energy and a good amount of money in your bank account for something much more fun than paying the energy bill.