Appliance Wastage
Appliance Wastage
Find out how you can save water, energy, and money
energy efficiency
After the price of oil bottomed out in the middle of the winter, the price of a barrel is once again on the rise and driving petrol prices up with it. Many people took advantage of low energy prices from the likes of British Gas* during the winter to get better deals for heating their homes, but if you didn’t, it’s best to act sooner rather than later with the price of energy looking set to rise over the coming months.
If you are looking to save money on your energy bills the best thing to do is to use less electricity. A lot is made of the way that certain appliances waste massive amounts of energy, and yet many people still ignore the advice. By simply keeping an eye on the way you use energy, you can save surprisingly large amounts on your fuel bills.
Computers are one of the major users of energy. Many people are told at work that they should leave their computers on overnight. This is not, however, to save energy, but to make it much easier to update the computer networks. If you have a desktop computer you should turn the monitor off when it is not in use, and likewise any printers and scanners that you have connected. It is, however, slightly more economical to leave the computer itself on during the day if you use it regularly as there is a certain ‘power-up surge.’ Still, common sense suggests if you’re only going to use your computer for half an hour a day, it’s a waste of energy to leave it running the rest of the time.
Other prime consumers are DVD players and VCRs. These are often left on standby for long periods of time without people noticing, and whilst it may once have been the case that if you turn these devices off you will have to retune them, that is no longer the case. It is, however, recommended that you should leave satellite television receivers on standby as they, like computer networks, are often updated at strange times and need to be operative to receive the update properly. Freeview boxes, however, can be turned off with no problems.
Many appliances these days have inbuilt chips that mean you can turn them off without losing data. For example, if you have a bedside alarm clock, you may find that if you turn it off and then turn it back on it retains your alarm data and the correct time. If you work long hours, or are even away from the bedroom for the majority of the day you’d be surprised at how much energy you can save from simply turning off a clock.
Ultimately, all of these measures aren’t that effective on their own, you have to do them all together (and many others) to make significant savings, but as it’s your hard earned money that you’re wasting, it might be a good idea to take a few moments to turn off the devices that you don’t use.
*For their latest
energy prices visit the British Gas website.
Article Last Modified: 15:16, 19th Aug 2008Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
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