High Electricity Bills? Keep it Simple
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Back in the eighties, my grandfather used to call TV remote controls “American laziness”. He considered a good leg-stretching sport getting up to change the channel manually. When he passed away, my mother and I were going through the old furniture and couldn’t help but notice how old (I mean seriously old) the fridge was. It was from the sixties my grandparents loved it for its roomy interior and my grandfather used to comment, “They don’t make them like they used to, anymore.” I loved that fridge and it brought back a lot of childhood memories, especially with its retro look. Once, while grabbing a cold drink of water, I inadvertently misplaced my sneakers inside. In those days, energy saving was not in our daily vocabulary. In those days, if you uttered the words “Hotmail”, “Facebook” and “energy savings,” people would treat you with as much sympathy as they would a mental patient.
Well, as the Bob Dylan song goes, “times, they are a-changin’,” but not necessarily for the better. The dilemma offered by modern technology is this: on the one hand, modern household appliances are much more energy efficient than back in the 1970s thanks to technological advancements, while on the other, we have so many more appliances at hand than before. In the old days, as a kid, our home’s electrical consumption used to depend on our use of the fridge, washing machine, water heaters, air conditioner, television, VHS recorder/player (remember those?), and the occasional weekly use of a vacuum machine. Today, we have to add to all that the dishwasher, microwave, electric sandwich heater, PlayStation, internet routers, personal desktop computer, laptops, foot massager, coffee maker, in additions to zillions of small chargers needed to power the good-to-have but often needless or idle devices such as printers, iPods, digital cameras, and other devices that bloggers are referring to as SDA (Senseless Desire to Acquire). So, yes – today’s appliances are more energy efficient, but their increasing number in our daily lives is not making the global warming phenomenon any less warm.
Ok, let’s divide our daily lives into two sections: the home appliances and the techie stuff. Starting with the last part first, we begin with the obvious: the personal computer. Admit it, Bill Gates came up with the slogan “a PC in every home” back in the late eighties and succeeded. Today it’s more like a PC in every pocket (hence the term Pocket PC). And let’s face it, can any of us do without the Internet? Back in the nineties, a PC would typically consume around 140 watts, 60 for the computer itself and 80 for the bulky CRT monitor. Today’s desktop computer has increased in consumption to an average of 300 watts, 270 for the computer box and 30 for the LCD monitor. Take out 40% of that total consumption if your PC uses an AMD processor rather than an Intel Pentium. If you use a Mac, then you won’t consume more than 100 watts. PCs are bulky, hardly movable, and require high operating costs in terms of heat and electricity, but they are cheap to buy – even cheaper than laptops. Bear in mind that PCs generate a lot of heat as well. I actually enjoy the heat my PC generates during the winter, while all hell breaks loose in the summer. As for the laptop, it consumes a mere 15 to 45 watts depending on the model it is lightweight, easy to handle, more mobile, flexible to use, and rarely used on laps. Where on earth the name came from is still a puzzle. However, laptops are pricy, more prone to breaking down, and repairing them is a pain in the neck, not to mention the high cost of repair. In certain cases, it would be just as expensive to buy a new laptop as to repair an old one. So in terms of electrical consumption, if you are a light user (Word, Excel, Facebook, emails, etc.) you’re better off using a laptop. And if you live in Lebanon, the best feature in a laptop is the built-in virtual UPS system (uninterrupted power supply), hence you don’t have to save your work if the power goes out. Conclusion: don’t be fooled by the exciting offers of desktops, and go for laptops unless you’re a graphic designer.
Today’s mobile phones have improved so much so that you can use them as all-in-one devices in addition to their communication capabilities. To complement your laptop in terms of picture and video capturing and upload them to your Facebook profile, all you need is a 5 megapixel plus phone camera. The only downturn is bulkiness, but don’t worry. Newer phones are improving in capabilities while reducing or at least maintaining their sizes. As an example, the Nokia N97 is much groovier looking and slimmer than the bulky Nokia N95. The Nokia E72 is the same size as its predecessor E71 but with a 5 megapixel camera instead of 3. Bottom line: get rid of all your cameras, GPSs, iPods, and the hectic management of their respective chargers. All you need is a Nokia E72 or N97 mini (or equivalent from other brands) and a laptop to manage and enjoy your music, photos, videos, Facebook, emails, Skyping, contact list, meeting schedule, and all you can think of in modern business and leisure activities. But those are not your only options a new generation of mobile phones is on its way to the market, including one based on Android operating systems.
Now let’s move to the electrical consumption in other areas of your household. But before we do, allow me to provide a few pointers, for even if you don’t upgrade your equipment then at least control your consumption cost.
Standby Energy: TVs, microwaves, DVD Players, phone chargers, stereo systems, and others consume electricity even while switched off. A study showed that average consumption of these appliances on “standby mode” represents around 10% of your total bill. The same study gives a few examples: TV (10 watts), clock radio (4 watts), microwave oven (4 watts), stereo system (10 watts), computer and computer monitor (7 watts), mobile phone charger (1 watt), printer (8 watts), and DVD player (6 watts). Electrical wall-plugs in Britain have an on-off switch that comes in pretty handy to help eliminate standby energy, but French and American wall plugs don’t have that switch. You can buy them at any appliance store and switch off the plug when you are not using your appliances.
Refrigerators: Did you know that a single degree Celsius in your fridge’s temperature setting could mean a 5% difference in electrical consumption? Set your fridge’s temperature to an ideal 4 degrees. Make it a habit to clean the door’s rubber seal at least once a month to prevent cold air leakage. Dust off the condenser panel at the back of the fridge (the black metal S bars). Accumulating dust on the condenser panels can reduce the fridge’s efficiency by 5% to 10%. As for fridge locations, many modern kitchen designs place the back of the fridge in an area void of air circulation this could damage your fridge in the long run. When buying a fridge look for the “energy” logo shown in this article. This is a sign that the fridge is energy efficient, which means it consumes around 70% less electricity than old fridges. This standard was introduced in the US in the early nineties and quickly spread to include Europe. Some Asian manufacturers however still lack compliance with energy efficient technologies.
Cooking: Of course we all still value the ease of use of the conventional oven and stove, but it’s high time we took a second look. First, the cooking oven should be air tight to prevent heat from escaping. You bought this appliance to cook your food inside, not heat your kitchen or home outside of it. Propane gas is still cheap to use, but in the Arab world, unlike the US and Europe, propane gas is not delivered to your home through a city piping system, but rather by bottles as the need arises. And besides, when using either a gas stove or an oven, heat will escape at one point or another. Of course this is justified if you are cooking for a large family.
But if you are cooking for a small number of people or simply making a cup of coffee, then consider alternative electrical stoves or ovens. For example, an electric frying pan will get the heat element closer to the food, instead of being separated by two layers of metal and an air gap. The disadvantage however is cleaning or washing the electric frying pan. It’s a very delicate piece of equipment and sometimes doesn’t respond well to water and dishwashing detergents.
My favorite however has to be heat induction cookers. These cook-top stoves are very energy efficient and incredibly fast to heat up. If you ever forget to turn them off, you don’t have to worry about your kitchen melting down or catching fire. Heat induction cookers work based on magnetic friction which, don’t worry, does not represent any health hazard. The drawback however – and trust me folks, I was victimized by this – is that you have to change your entire range of pots and pans. You entire heating cookware has to be “heat induction” ready. Normal cookware won’t work on heat induction cookers, but heat induction cookware will work on normal electric cookers. Conclusion: go for induction cookers. They are quick, do not leak heat as they transfer it directly to the cooking surface, and electricity consumption can be controlled better than other technologies. Best of all, they are among the safest cooking appliances.
Lighting: there are three basic household lighting bulbs: the good old incandescent (or should we say now, bad old), the CFL or Compact Fluorescent Light bulb, and the LED (Light Emitting Diode bulb). There are three parameters to consider here: cost of the bulb, life span, and of course consumption. There’s a fourth parameter but it’s not a scientific one, and that’s practicality. Starting with practicality, the LED light bulb is at a disadvantage, although it’s the best in terms of consumption. The problem with LED is that it produces directional lighting, i.e. when you need to direct a light to a specific corner, LEDs are great even BMW and other car manufacturers have started using LED on their vehicles’ headlights due to their energy saving benefits. However LED performs poorly if you are trying to illuminate a room where you need the light to spread around. Still we shouldn’t give up. Maybe a little decorative adjustment is needed. I’ve seen building entrances in Europe where they use six or eight LED spotlights along the entrance. The same principle could be used in a room. LED bulb manufacturers are trying to solve this problem in two ways. One is to move the lateral diodes horizontally to give a wider radius of lighting. The other is to cover the bulb with crystallized glass that would deflect part of the directional light laterally to provide a greater radius of illumination. Experiments are still in their early stages, but people who purchased them are so far satisfied. Let’s hope for the better. Another issue of practicality is that when you switch on the light, a normal light bulb will give you its full luminance capacity immediately, as will an LED bulb. A CFL bulb however will take around 5 seconds to really light up it will switch on slightly dimmed then intensify in a few seconds. If you’ve used normal fluorescent tube lights, you know what we’re talking about.
Moving on to the three parameters that form the running cost of a light bulb, the LED is the best in terms of life span. While the normal light bulb has a life span between 1,000 and 1,500 hours (depending on quality) and the CFL bulb between 8,000 and 12,000 hours, the LED light bulb has a whopping 60,000 hour life span, so it’s kind of “install and forget”. In terms of consumption, the equivalent of a 60 watt normal light bulb is 14 watts on a CFL bulb and 6 watts on an LED bulb. For example, if your home uses 20 light bulbs and each one is used for an average of 5 hours per day, then your daily consumption would be 6000 watts per day if you’re using normal bulbs, 1400 watts if you’re using CFL, and a mere 600 watts per day if you’re using LED. That’s a 90% savings on your lighting bill if you switch from normal bulbs to LED. However, making that switch will cost you a small fortune. At present the cost of a 6 watt (60 watt equivalent) LED bulb costs between $40 and $110, so replacing 20 light bulbs in your home would cost you at least $800, and that’s using the low-quality option. Switching to CFL bulbs, with prices ranging from $1 to $2.50 would cost you at least $20. I would say that’s acceptable, wouldn’t you? In conclusion, while LEDs are the best in terms of technology, their exorbitant process does not render them commercially viable.
Very few people are aware of this, but in a few years normal incandescent light bulbs will be outlawed in Europe, hence phased out of the European market altogether. We hope Arab countries will follow suit instead of seeking nuclear energy to cope with rising demand. A first step would be to instigate green laws, encourage alternative green and energy saving products, and outlaw or at least ban heavy consumption and antiquated products before burdening our atmosphere with new electric power plants, no matter what the technology is.
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| Read full story in REAL's September issue |
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