My electricity bill decreased from an average of $500/mth to just $150/mth

• We still switch on the air-conditioners every night.


• We still watch TV at the usual times.


• We don't use candles to replace of light bulbs.

Being energy efficient isn't just about saving money, it's about saving the environment!! Do you know energy wastage has indirect effects to global warming? The polar bears are dying!

All my family members did was to do some minor alterations to our lifestyle habits and change some of the electrical appliances.

Here are some of the things we did:

Use energy-efficient electrical appliance the Energy Label

Image from the National Environmental Agency http://www.nea.gov.sg/

The number of green ticks basically reflects on the efficiency on energy consumption of the electrical appliance. More more information on the specifications of this label, click here.

But I have one thing to highlight. There's a common misconception about this label. It doesn't mean that the more ticks you have, the more energy efficient you are. Why? Electrical appliances that have more ticks are usually the bigger ones. Let say you need only a 300 litre refrigerator cos you don't buy much groceries but because it only has 3 ticks, you decide to buy one that has has a capacity of 500 litres cos it has 4 ticks? The 4-ticks bigger fridge consumes more electrical energy than the 3-ticks smaller one. So if you don't need the big fridge but you buy it because of the number of ticks, you are wasting energy because you don't need such a big one. Thus, you become energy-inefficient even though you bought an energy efficient home appliance.

In this case the energy efficiency is judged based on the comparison of refrigerators with the same capacities and features.

My family emptied 4 refrigerators and got a huge one for all the stuff we have. Save LOTS LOTS LOTS of money.

Air-Conditioners (Strategic arrangements & the inverter)

As you know, the air-conditioners are the main contributors to our overall electricity consumption.

We reshuffled the air-conditioners to a more strategic arrangement. As you know we have 9 bedrooms. 1 has been converted into a storeroom, 3 spare bedrooms for guests, and 5 other are normal bedrooms. We changed two system-2 air-conditioner sets(1 compressor, 2 air-cons) into a system-4 inverter (I'm not sure what's inverter though, but it saves more energy?).

Caesar's room's air-conditioner was a system-1, thus, very inefficient in energy-saving. One of the system-2 was installed in my room (the current store-room) and Caesar's room (We share a bedroom now cos Caesar hates to sleep alone - social animals)

Air-Conditioners (temperature)

Rule no.1: Never set the temperature lower than 25°C in this tropical climate. Some people set it as 16°C! Silly! Your room's temperature will never be that low (unless you have more than 1 air-con in a small room). 25°C should be comfortable enough. What's the point of switching on the air-conditioner and bury yourself under the blanket in your long-sleeved pajamas, shivering??

The lower the temperature, the more energy it takes to reduce the room-temperature. Sometimes, the desired temperature will not even be reached when you wake up in the morning. In another words, your air-conditioner has been using up a LOT of energy trying to cool your room further throughout the night.

Air-Conditioners - how to help reduce its "workload"

1. Cool down the temperature of the room manually before you switch on the air-con.
   
   While watching TV, open all the windows and doors of your room so that the air can vantilate.
   


2. Make sure your room is well insulated.
   
   My family bought door-sweeps from DIY stores to fix it at the bottom of the doors of our rooms to prevent cool-air from 'escaping'.
   
   
   Image from http://soundproofing.org/images/door_seal_c.jpg
   
   Make sure your windows do not allow 'leakage' of cool air too.
   
   Do not leave your door opened when the air-conditioner is switched on. Make it a habit to close it if you need to leave you room for a second.
   


3. Use a fan on rainy nights instead of air-conditioners, unless you sleep with any close cousins of Caesar.
   


4. Paint your walls with heat-insulating paint. (It works!) We use it in the rooms that are affected by the late afternoon Sun, as well as the ceiling (top-floor unit)
   


5. Install window films to reduce heat radiation. This works miracles for houses that are badly affected by the Sun.
   


6. Set-timers for air-conditioners. If you are waking up at 6am. Set the timer to stop the air-con from working 30 minutes before your intended time of waking up. The room will still stay cool for the 30-60 minutes as long as the doors are closed, especially in the morning. In this case, you won't forget to switch off the air-con too!
   


7. Remove as many heat radiating things from your room. In my case, my parents removed the freezer, fridge, microwave oven from their room. I don't know about your rooms, but just remove if there's any.
   


8. Blow-dry your hair in the bathroom, not air-conditioned room.

Refrigerator

1. Do not over-clutter your refrigerator.
   
   Over-cluttering causes poor ventilation, thus, it will be harder for the refrigerator to maintain temperature.
   


2. Do not open the refrigerator door and just stare into it, or just to enjoy the cool air.
   
   
   Image from http://pro.corbis.com
   
   That's what many people do. Make it a habit to think of what you wanna get before you open it. I forgot the readings on the E-Track device, but you spend quite an amount opening the refrigerator door.
   


3. Wait for food to cool before storing them in the refrigerator.
   
   I know some kids like to cool the boiling water in freezers. We don't really boil our water cos it's all been through reverse osmosis - super clean.

It's getting too wordy and I'm sleepy. So I'll just sum up the rest.

• Do not leave lights switched on when not in use.


• Turn off the computers and laptops when not in use.



• OR turn off the screen (extend lifespan of screen too)



• Reduce usuage on hair dryers.



• Washing Machine, wash it full load.



• Do not leave switches on stand-by mode



• Make use of natural warm water (late afternoon/afternoon)



• reduce usuage of oven (high energy-consumption)



• Don't use the toaster just for 1 slice of bread! (energy inefficiency)



• Do not switch on another TV if you are watching the same channel as others.

Will talk about the usefulness about the E-TRACK Device soon!

Try these ways out for a month, and tell me your change in electrical usage bill!!