Did you know that as of 2015, approximately 79.7% of energy consumption globally is through burning fossil fuel (according to data from The World Bank)?
If we aren’t careful with our electricity usage, the depletion of our earth’s fossil fuels will only continue to accelerate.
Public and private organisations alike have long been advocating eco-friendly lifestyles. However, perhaps you don’t know where to start, or you don’t wish to go through the supposed fuss involved.
Thankfully, we’ve got a couple of energy-saving tips that you can start applying today!
1) Use natural light
Draw up the curtains and open your windows. Most of the time, you won’t even need to switch on your lights till sunset comes round.
If you’re afraid of your house getting too hot in the afternoon, you can invest in a translucent thermal curtain to keep the heat out.
2) Keep plants at home
Plants give out water during the transpiration process, keeping the air in your room fresh and cool on a hot day.
Not only will you save energy by leaving the lights switched off, you won’t need to turn on the air conditioning too. You can also get indoor plants to style up your home interior!
3) Pull the plug
We’re not referring to the medical usage of the term here! You’ve surely been nagged to switch off your gadgets and appliances when not in use, but you may not have been asked to unplug them.
Did you know that you’re still wasting electricity when you leave your devices plugged in, or on standby mode? In fact, these seemingly trivial actions can account for 12% of your electricity usage.
One way to resolve this is to plug your home electronics into power strips. When they’re not in use, simply switch off the power and disconnect the main plug. This helps you save up to 30% on your electricity bill!
4) Go easy on the air conditioning
Living in a tropical country can be unbearably hot even at night, so you probably sleep with the air conditioning turned on. But did you know that our body requires less cooling when we’re asleep?
Assuming you sleep 8 hours a night, that’s 240 hours of air conditioning usage monthly! Using the “sleep mode” or timer function could greatly reduce your energy consumption.
At this temperature, air conditioners run at their optimal performance level and aren’t working too hard. This creates less of a power drain.
5) Switch to energy-saving appliances
Not only is it cheaper to buy home appliances with energy-efficient labels, they can even halve your energy consumption at home.
For example, an energy-efficient refrigerator uses three times less energy than that of a regular one. LED light bulbs also use 80% less energy than traditional incandescents.
6) Wash only when there’s a full load
If you get impatient while your favourite garment is in the laundry basket, hand wash it. Or if you’ve cooked a single-serving meal, skip the dishwasher!
Using the dishwasher and washing machine at half load can waste a lot of energy. Did you know that a single large load can save you about 25% to 50% of the energy of two small loads?
7) Maximise your water usage
You’ve heard it before, but we’re gonna say it again – take shorter showers, turn off the tap when not in use, and fix water leaks at home. All these water-saving tips help you save energy at the same time.
Here’s another way to maximise water usage – wash your laundry in cold water. It’s estimated that 75% to 90% of all the energy your washing machine uses goes to warming up the water.
There are also other perks to using cold water: your clothes will not shrink, there’ll be less wrinkles, and the colours will not fade.
If you want to have some fun while saving electricity at home…
All the tips we’ve given above sounds pretty boring and straightforward to you? Why not check out some of these quirky ones we’ve read online!
1) Stuff a cold bag of rice inside your pillowcase
Forget about the air conditioner! Place a bag of rice in the freezer and put it inside your pillowcase when you’re going to sleep. This helps to cool your head, along with the rest of your body.
2) Use night vision goggles
Why waste electricity by turning on the lights at night? Get yourself a pair of night vision goggles and move around effortlessly even in complete darkness. Now, that’s a real investment.
3) Switch up the way your fan’s blades spin
If it’s a chilly night, reverse the blades of your ceiling fan’s direction to run clockwise and at low speed. This ensures that the room air is being pulled up, and warm air is distributed from the ceiling down into the room.
And if it’s a warm day, turn your ceiling fan’s blades so that it runs in a counter-clockwise direction and at a higher speed. This will direct the air downward into the room and create a cooling wind chill effect!
P.S. We haven’t tried any of these, though.
Reducing your carbon footprint at home doesn’t actually take much effort. You’ve seen how little tweaks to things you already do on a daily basis can still make a difference. Check out these other helpful pointers on how to make your home a lot more sustainable.
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