Tuesday 9 April 2013

Energy consumption

Easy way to save money with standby products

Today the energy company asked me to check my meter and send in the kWh that I had used for the last couple of months. Today one gets a very nice representation online of how much a home consumes and I can even fill out very specific details regarding what I have in my apartment etc.
Their energy tables are showing that below 1500 kWh is optimal, 1500 to 2400 kWh is average and above 2400 kWh then you are seriously wasting energy. This is of course calculated according to my situation with a small apartment, currently single, using gas for heating apartment as well the hot water.



Two years ago I had an energy consumption of almost 1500 kWh which was very, very good. Back then I had a fridge that after moving a couple a times had kind of lost its efficiency as well as function and it was getting worse and worse with the function part. I had to defrost all the time, kick on it every now and then to get it running but sometimes it was still dead for 24 hours or more. In winter it is not a real problem but during summer and 30 degrees it just is not acceptable.

So I bought a new fridge and directly I had a dramatic decrease in power consumption as well as having nice cold products to consume. I then also took it one step further and bought electrical plugs that I can switch on and off. There is no purpose for my DVD, TV, Playstation, PC, Printer etc. to be on stand by mode when I am not home for 12 hours per day and when I go to bed then there is no purpose to leave it on either and therefore, not only to save the environment but also my electricity bill, I turn it of before going to sleep.

I am currently on a yearly energy consumption of 772 kWh. This is half of what I used before and my life has not suffered from placing my toe on the button to switch things back on again and the swap of the fridge will probably pay itself back already next year.

Every now and then it is important to look over the consumption of the electrical products you have at home. You might make a buck or two from it!

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