Summer is fast approaching, and we are all gearing up for power cuts for multiple hours. This is exactly when we also start running fans at full speed, water coolers, and air conditioners for several hours a day. While you get ready for huge electricity bills, here’s what you can do to reduce that pain on the wallet:
1. Stop using your water heater. Have a bath in the evening when water is at its highest temperature due to the afternoon sun. Let me assure you, you won’t notice a difference in body freshness the next day.
2. Insulate windows and doors, especially those facing the sun, and if possible add glass glazing. Glass glazing lets light in, while putting the heat out. An alternative is to add window tints, those that reflect sun away.
God didn’t create the Sun for nothing. Use the sun’s light to the maximum extent possible but make sure to keep the heat out. When building a house design it keeping in view to maximise daylight.
3. Add heavy drapes or curtains of a light color to prevent any sunlight in during the day.
4. Close all doors and windows when the sun rises. Open up all possible doors and windows after the sun sets to let the air in the house cool down.
5. Lighting: Replace all bulbs in the house with Compact Fluorescent lights. Modern CFLs also come in yellow so you don’t have to compromise on that. Install 5W CFLs in bathrooms, because, believe me, they are bright enough for the job. For night lamps, don’t make the mistake of buying the so called Zero Watt bulbs, as most often they draw around 10-15W. Get a 1W LED bulb available at many electrical stores nowadays. These are nearly as bright as their bulb counterparts at a fraction of the drawn power.
Your job is only half done. Make sure you switch off any and every light when not using that room. Contrary to what rumors say, modern CFLs don’t lose their life with regular on/off cycles.
Turn off unnecessary lights. Avoid lighting the entire room and more for simple tasks. Do you need three 25W CFLs to watch TV? Use targeted lighting when working at a desk or on a kitchen platform or for a sink/basin. LED based target lights are very popular and save big on electricity and pay for themselves very quickly. Get a USB LED light for your laptop and avoid lighting up the entire room when working on your laptop.
6. Traditional PCs consume 200W – 300W during regular use along with a monitor. Laptops consume around 35-50W for the same processing power, and are also mobile. Get a second hand laptop if a new one seems expensive. For those that don’t require extensive processing power, an option is to go for Net-Tops that are stingy on electricity use.
If buying something is not an option for you, make sure you apply aggressive power settings on your PC like switching off the monitor when idle, powering down hard disks and switching into standby mode after a set time. Reduce the brightness on your CRT monitor to decrease power drawn. Switch off monitor when not at your desk. Shutdown the PC when not using it. Standby mode also keeps drawing some power from the outlet.
7. Completely switch off all devices like your TV, Set-top box, DVD Player, Music systems, microwaves, airconditioners, cellphone chargers, etc when not in use. Turning them off, and leaving them in Standby Mode without flipping the switch will continue to drain power and burn a hole in your pocket. Standby losses of one device can be as much as 10-15W (according to WikiPedia), and sometimes more. Beware.
8. In the summer, if only using a fan, do not start it with a full blast. Instead, start from the least speed setting and slowly increase it to a comfortable setting. If using an evaporative cooler, get a modern energy-efficient branded appliance as these are optimized for effective utilization of both electricity and water. Non-branded coolers tend to draw very high electricity, thus reducing the cost benefit over an air conditioner.
If using an air conditioner, make sure to follow points 2,3 & 4. It helps to cool down the house by opening doors and windows before switching on the air-con so there is lesser hot air for the air-con to cool, thus reducing load and the electricity consumption. Most Indians are used to heat and hot summers, then why freeze yourself at 22′C ? Instead, take off your rugs and increase the temperature to 26′ or 27′C and use the ceiling fan or a targeted table fan to remove hot air pockets around you. Remember, you only want to keep your body cool but you are cooling the entire room, furniture and appliances for this purpose. Air conditioning is the most inefficient way to keep cool. Just remind yourself that your ancestors lived without it for centuries, and didn’t go extinct.
9. Avoid stuffing your refrigerator with items that don’t need refrigeration. Some of us throw in everything at a refrigerator, ranging from ketchup, flours, dry masalas and powders. Don’t store half of your kitchen in the fridge. An over stuffed fridge runs at reduced efficiency.
Get the right sized refrigerator. Remember, a frost-free fridge needs more electricity to keep the freezer frost-free. Avoid repetitive opening of the fridge door. Avoid opening the door and then wondering what to take out. Use a clay-pot to cool your water and reduce that extra bit of load on the compressor. Water from clay pots are reportedly tastier. New clay-pots also come with a fitted tap to improve hygiene.
9. Buy energy efficient devices. The Indian government has come up with the BEE ratings that define the energy consumption of that particular appliance using a 5-star system. It is mandatory for several appliances to carry the rating. Energy-efficient devices may be expensive, but pay for themselves in the long run in electricity savings.
10. LCD monitors typically consume 1/5th of a comparable CRT monitor and newer devices also feature better viewing angles.
Get a steam iron instead of a regular iron so you achieve a similar ironing experience using lesser heat.
Use exhaust fans and chimneys to keep kitchen and bathroom heat off the house.
Energy efficiency shoots two birds in one shot. You not only pay lesser, every unit of electricity you save helps light another home somewhere else in the country. Report electricity thefts to your nearest electricity distributor, and spread the message of power saving to your friends. As proof, throw them a party using some of the energy savings. 
