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You’re probably already doing the simple things to save energy, such as turning things off when you don’t need them, but you might want to make more changes to reduce your energy consumption still further. If so, you’re going to need the right tools for the job.
Energy Saving Light Bulbs
These are the environmentally friendly devices people tend to think of first, and with good reason. Switching from standard bulbs to energy efficient ones can end up with you using just a fifth of the electricity to meet your lighting needs, while the long life of most energy saving bulbs means that they’re more than worth any extra cost.
Standby Saving Plugs
If you leave your computer on standby, then it’s not only wasting electricity, it’s also shortening the lifespan of the computer. Standby plugs work intelligently to cut power completely when the device is not in use, along with power to connected devices such as printers or scanners.
Low Water Use Kettles
Even if you’re careful about not over filling your kettle, it can be hard to judge precisely how much water you need to use. Kettles designed with this in mind store water in a separate chamber, and release only the required amount into the boiling section of the device.
Solar or Wind Up Power
Sometimes, you can eliminate the use of mains electricity altogether. While it might be a little ambitious to cover your house in solar panels, using solar power on a smaller scale is both practical and cheap. Solar powered chargers will let you power up phones or other devices without the cost or electricity use of plugging into a mains socket. Alternatively, you could make use of wind up devices, requiring only a few seconds of effort on your part rather than a costly electricity bill. Radios, MP3 players and even battery chargers have all had the wind up treatment, so there’s the potential for big energy savings no matter what you’re doing.
Dryer Balls
Sometimes though, you just want a very simple solution. They don’t come much simpler than dryer balls. Put in with your tumble dryer’s normal load, they cut drying time by up to a quarter, saving all the electricity that would have been used in that time.
Energy Meters
How much electricity is that? Well, if you invest in an energy meter that gives you an accurate and continuous readout of your electricity use, you’ll know precisely. Often the first step to making savings is knowing how much you’re using.
Whatever energy saving tools you decide on, they don’t require major changes. Instead, the best of them let you achieve noticeable electricity savings without you having to alter anything about your life. That has to be worth it.
A Review of Some Energy Saving Tools
If you are already turning out the lights when you leave the room, taking short showers while utilizing a water efficient shower head, putting in your energy saving light bulbs and insulating your home, then perhaps you can skip this article! This article if for those who are still a bit shy to the energy saving world as it will cover the benefits of doing the above mentioned things.
The use of energy saving light bulbs is as simple as it gets. These bulbs are environmentally friendly and can use less than a fifth of the energy traditional bulbs use. They are a bit more costly upfront, but they do not need to be replaced nearly as often, so they are, on average, actually less expensive than the others.
As for turning off lights and saving energy when electronics are not in use, that, too, is simple. A simple flip of the switch for one and the other only requires that you purchase a standby plug. The standby plugs work with your computer or other electronics (such as scanners, fax machines, printers, etc) to keep them from constantly pulling an excessive amount of energy. These plugs will completely shut the power off to the devices when they are not in use.
Taking shorter showers is also easy enough to do, but how about the small ways we use water every day. Have you ever overfilled your kettle? I know I have, but that no longer happens to me since I purchased a kettle that actually stores the water in a separate chamber than the boiler section. That sounds odd, I know, but it allows me to select the amount of water I want to heat and will heat only that amount. This saves water as well as the energy it takes to heat the unneeded water.
Something that is equally as simple as the kettle is solar power. I am not talking about surfacing your roof top with solar panels, but am referencing solar powered chargers for your mobile devices. Solar powered chargers are inexpensive and require no electricity at all to power thing from your cell phone to your MP3 player. In addition to solar energy there is wind up power (not wind as in the weather term, but wind as in turn). There are items such as wind up radios, wind up clocks, wind up remote controls - the list goes on and on. Did you know that 30 turns on a wind up remote control can power the remote for a week? How great is that - no more batteries!!
Lastly, an energy meter is a great way to start your energy efficient quest. These meters can be installed in your home to allow you to monitor your electricity usage at any given point. It is neat to see how much energy your washing machine uses verses how much energy your dishwasher uses! There are countless ways to save energy and this is definitely not a complete list, but it is a great place to start!
Ronald Jennings is the author of "Home Energy Saving Secrets: What Every Family Must Know" from his childhood he has been fascinated in electric eneregy saving and finding different ways to save home energy. You can get instant access to more information about home energy savings right here at Home Energy Saving Secrets
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