How to Save Electricity by Correct Use of Electrical Appliances

Energy efficient appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers and freezers will work even more efficiently with some of these energy saving tips.

The world's financial crisis aside, the issue of global warming is one that needs to be taken seriously. Proper use of electrical appliances can be kind to the environment and put some money back into one's pocket.

Energy Saving Tips for Dishwashers

• Energy consumption can be reduced by turning off the dishwasher before the drying cycle. Clean dishes can be left to dry or wiped dry.
• Make sure the dishwasher is not partially loaded, but filled properly.
• Short wash cycles, rinse-only cycles mid-cycle turn off and other features are designed by washing machine manufacturers for energy conservation; make use of them to cut down on electricity.
• Use a cold wash unless it's absolutely necessary to use hot.
• Keep dishwasher filters clear of debris. A blocked filter reduces efficiency and wastes energy.

Energy Saving Tips for Refrigerators

• Choose a refrigerator based on the needs of one's family. Refrigerators work best when filled, so having a giant fridge for two people is obviously not energy-efficient.
• Do not set freezing temperatures lower than necessary – that wastes as much electricity as excessive heat.
• Opening and closing the refrigerator door needlessly lets warm air in and makes the refrigerator work harder. Try to remove several items at once.
• Allow enough space around the refrigerator for air circulation. The air carries heat away from the fridge. If air cannot circulate, the fridge will not work efficiently.
• Switch on the energy saving switch if there is one fitted to the refrigerator.
• Empty out, clean and switch off the refrigerator when away on vacation.
• Make sure the seal around the refrigerator is intact.
• Do not place the refrigerator near the stove or against a wall that faces the sun.
• Thick frost on chilling panels affects the cooling ability. If the refrigerator is not a frost-free model, defrost the refrigerator regularly to save energy.
• Keep condenser coils / panels that are usually found at the back of the fridge clean and dust-free.

Energy Saving Tips for Freezers

• Defrosting of chest freezers should be done once or twice a year, upright models two to three times a year. Do not allow frost to exceed 0.6 to 1.3 cm.
• Freezers and refrigerators operate most efficiently when filled to the capacity recommended by the manufacturer.
• Freezers will have to work harder if more than one tenth of the capacity is used to freeze fresh food at any given time.
• Keep the freezer open for a minimum of time, avoid opening and closing to save energy.
• Keep condenser panels at the back of the freezer clean and dust-free for maximum energy efficiency and conservation.

An effort should be made by every person on the planet to reduce the demand for such fuels as coal, oil, gas and electricity. Not only will one save money but help to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants responsible for contributing to global warming.

DONT'S

Do not connect multiple equipments to a single point outlet to avoid excess loading. Do not temper with lines, energy meters, cutouts, meter seals or metering equipments. It is an offence. Do not use bare wires for extending supply from one point to other or from one premise to other. Do not indulge in theft of electrical energy.  It is cognizable offence and attracts penal charges and/ or imprisonment. Do not plant trees below overhead lines. Do not give application before completing the wring in your premises. Do not delay to pay service connections charges and security deposit once the advice for payment is received. Do not pay any cash to the Assessor when he visits your premises for meter reading. Cash payment for electricity charges should be made only at the authorized collection counter during working hours only. Do not shift the meter or meter board without proper sanction by MPPKVVCL. Do not hand over the application to the assessor and don’t send it by ordinary post. Don’t provide space for fixing the meter underneath the staircase or outside the building.

DO’S

1. In case of any leakage in power supply, get it rectified immediately. Replace defective electrical fittings and appliances promptly.  Avoid loose connections & joints.
2. Install safety equipments for Earth leakage/Over load and Short circuit protection.  Near point of supply.
3. Use proper capacity fuse wire and ensure healthy earthlings at the premises.
4. Get the wiring done through licensed Electrical contractors.
5. Use ISI marked equipments and cables of proper capacity even they cost more.
6. Ensure safety of meter and metering equipments. Prefer waterproof enclosures for them.
7. Construct building with proper clearance from HT/LT tension lines as per IER 1956.
8. Use electricity only for purpose for which the service connection has been given.
9. If energy meter is found stopped/defective please bring the matter in knowledge of MPPKVVCL authorities immediately in writing.
10. Pay energy bills regularly at authorized cash counters only within due date to avoid inconvenience due to disconnection.
11. For any difficulties related to electricity supply, always contract MPPKVVCL authorities at their offices.
12. Observe safety precautions to avoid electrical accidents.
13. Stay away from a downed power line and informed MPPKVVCL office immediately.
14. Beware of sub-station & transmission lines stay clear of sub-station, poles, towers structures.

Tips for electricity consumers

1. Make use of daylight and natural ventilation to maximum and avoid to use bulbs or tube lights during daytime.
2. Switch off light and fans if not in use. Reduce high wattage bulbs where less light is needed.
3. Avoid unnecessary decoration of lights.
4. In a vacant house, limit the use of electricity as per minimum requirement.
5. Switch on or off the streetlights in proper time.
6. Buy the electrical equipments, which use less electricity and are energy efficient
7. In air conditioned buildings and houses, keep the doors and windows close to save electricity. Clean A.C. filter regularly.
8. Use electronic regulators in fans, use 36-watt thin tube light instead of 40-watt tube light.
9. Use fluorescent lights in place of bulb to reduce consumption of electricity.
10. Use standard pins to tap supply from plug points. Avoid tapping supply by inserting bare  wires.
11. Do not use lamp fittings to tie wires or ropes to dry cloths.
12. Replace fuse bulb after switch is off.
13. Defrost the fridge once ice gets more then ¼” thick. Regular defrosting reduces power consumption. Place the fridge with its coils at distance from wall so that the coils can have sufficient space to breathe. Do place the refrigerator near any heat source.
14. Use of light colour on walls reduces lighting requirement
15. Make home safe for children against electrical hazards. Install plastic protective caps on plug points.
16. Electricity and water can be a deadly combination Always remember that water and electricity must never mix.
17. Use foot valves of less resistance in tube well to reduce the consumption of electricity.
18. To avoid damage of bearings try to keep motor and pump in a straight line. This will reduce wastage of energy.
19. Use good quality PVC suction pipe to save energy.
20. Use appropriate pump sets, keeping in mind the height and capacity of pipe.
21. To improve the power factor and voltage use shunt capacitor with motor. This will also save the electricity.
22. Energy is lost by belts.  Minimize the use of belts.
23. Keep the motor near load.
24. To improve power factor and so the voltage, use shunt capacitors with motor. This will also reduce the consumption of electricity.
25. The damaged bearings waste energy, change them immediately.
26. Use motors with good capacity and size.
27. Use one motor of appropriate capacity for one work.
28. Avoid loading of vehicles like trucks beyond the permissible height.  This may cause electrical accident due to coming of vehicle in contact with electrical lines.
29. Don’t mount/tie advertisement boards, flags etc on electric poles.
30. Place “Men working’ sign boards on all switches before start working.
31. Place rubber mats in front of electrical switchboard.
32. Keep the fire extinguisher is good condition. Check them periodically.

65 WAYS TO SAVE ELECTRICITY

KEEP YOUR ELECTRICITY BILLS DOWN AND SAVE ENERGY FOR THE FUTURE BY BEING AWARE OF THE MOST EFFICIENT WAYS TO USE ELECTRICITY.

COOKING

1 Keep the door closed. Ever time you open it the temperature drop about 20 degrees (c)
2 Cook several dishes at the one time.If you are cooking small items use the frypan.
3 When cooking small quantities use one sauce pan with dividers.
4 Keep food warm at 70-80 deg(c) Higher temperatures waste electricity and over cook food.
5 Use oven heat for plate warming.
6 Use utensils with flat bottoms and well fitting lids.Make sure they cover hotplates.
7 To cook vegetables the water doesn't need to be boiling furiously - a gentle simmer is enough.


8 Fan type ovens reduce cooking costs.
9 Use bright clean hotplate reflectors to send the heat upwards where it is wanted.
10 Pressure cookers can save up to 25% of power.
11 Use small appliances eg. griller,crockpot,wok,etc for appropriate foods.
12 Thaw frozen foods before cooking - this saves about 15 minutes cooking per 450 grams (one pound).
13 A microwave is very economical for suitable functions -it is excellent for reconstituting food.
14 Don't use grill-boiler plate on top of range for utensils not large enough to cover it.
15 Don't boil water on a hotplate - use an electric kettle.
16 Make sure your oven door seals properly.

HEATING AND COOLING.

17 Have the ceiling insulated with at least 50mm of fibrous or foam insulation.
18 In timber framed or brick homes the walls should also be insulated. Block off any chimneys not being used - A lot of heat is lost there.
19 Unless you have full home conditioning close the doors of the room/s being heated or cooled. Doors and windows should fit well because draughts can waste a lot of energy. Close curtains to stop heat escaping.
20 See that air- conditioner filters and condenser coils are kept clean.
21 Reverse cycle air-conditioners provide 2 to 2.5 times as much heat as an element type heater for the same electricity consumption.


22 Zoning of a house conditioned by a ducted system can cut energy consumption to a half or even third.
23 Shade windows during summer to keep sun of the glass.
24 Don't leave heating or cooling appliances on when rooms are unoccupied.
25 Use personal fans and ceiling fans for relief from hot weather. Fans cost much less to run than air conditioners.
26 Many air- conditioning systems operate at 22 deg (c). You will still be comfortable if you set the control for 24-25 deg (c) in summer. and 18-19 deg (c) in winter and you will use a lot less electricity.


27 Leave room conditioner "fresh air " and "exhaust air " controls in the closed positions unless you want to freshen thew room air.
28 Set fan at high speed for a room conditioner to work most efficiently.
29 Evaporative coolers are very effective when installed correctly. The operating cost of an evaporative cooler is only a fraction of that of a refrigerated unit.
30 A student can be kept warm with a 150 watt infra red lamp fitted under the desk.
31 Localised under carpet heating gives economical armchair comfort.
32 People heating is more economical than space heating.-use radiators multi-heat radiant heaters, wall strip heaters ,fan heaters.
33 Electric blankets are the cheapest form of bedroom heating.

REFRIGERATION

34 Select a fridge that uses waste heat for defrosting etc. These fridges are usually cheaper to operate.
35 Buy the size you need extra capacity uses extra power.
36 If you already have a chest or upright freezer buy an "all though " refrigerator instead of a fridge freezer combination.

37 Defrost before the ice build up is 1 cm thick.
38 Open the door only when necessary.
39 Make sure the door seals well. If a piece of paper will slide easily between the cabinet and the door seal is not good enough.

40 Keep dust and fluff brushed off the coils on the back or bottom of the fridge.
41 Put the fridge in a well ventilated position.
42 Place your fridge away from direct sunlight or any source of heat. Don't put hot food into a fridge or freezer.

CLOTHES AND WASHING

43 Don't buy a large machine if you don't need it. For the occasional big wash an extra cycle or two is cheaper than under using a large washer.
44 Adjust the water level to economically wash a partial load.Otherwise it is better to wait until you have a full load.But don't overload your machine.

45 Your washer may have features than can save your money.Soak cycles remove stubborn stains in wash cycle.Suds savers allow you to re use hot water.
46 Use correct type of detergent and cold or tepid water will wash clothes effectively.

LIGHTING

47 Good lighting means avoiding glare and gloom by using the right amount of light in the right way.

48 Use light translucent shades- opaque or dark shades require bigger lamps.
49 Use a good local light near the task. It is more effective and more efficient than a large central light.
50 Use fluorescent tubes . they use about a quarter of electricity used by ordinary globes and they last
about eight times as long. They CAN be switched on and off as often as you need without affecting operating cost.

CLOTHES DRYING

51 Use solar energy to dry your clothes -it costs nothing.
52 Operate your dryer using the fan alone. Only switch the heater on if it is really necessary.Vent the dryer outside the house and don't let lint block the vent.

53 never overload or underload the dryer - you get most economical operation with the correct load.
54 Switch off when the clothes are dry enough - over drying makes them feel harsh and waste electricity.
55 Tumble dryers are more effective than cabinet dryers.

WATER HEATING

56 Off peak low pressure storage heaters are generally the cheapest overall.

57 Don't allow dripping taps .Sixty drips a minutes means about 1200 litres a month drown the drain.
And you have paid for it to be heated.
58 Water restrictors and low flow shower nozzles will help to save water.
59 Insulate hot water pipes from storage heaters for at least a metre from the heater as heat can be conducted along these pipes and lost to the atmosphere.

60 Install a storage heater of 125 litres or more to run off peak tariff - which is about half the normal rate.
61 Normally you will use less water for shower than bath.
62 Fill your electric kettle or jug from the cold tap.Running off a lot of cold water from the hot pipes is wasteful and expensive.
63 Don't have you hot water set too 70 deg (c) is usually hot enough . Otherwise it costs more to heat the water and it loses more heat while being stored.

ACCESSORIES

64 Dimmers save power and enable you to obtain pleasant changes of mood in your lighting.
65 Use plug-in timers to control such things as fryingpans,crockpots,riadiators.lights and air conditioners.

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Cultural perception

In the 19th and early 20th century, electricity was not part of the everyday life of many people, even in the industrialised Western world. The popular culture of the time accordingly often depicts it as a mysterious, quasi-magical force that can slay the living, revive the dead or otherwise bend the laws of nature.^[76] This attitude began with the 1771 experiments of Luigi Galvani in which the legs of dead frogs were shown to twitch on application of animal electricity. "Revitalization" or resuscitation of apparently dead or drowned persons was reported in the medical literature shortly after Galvani's work. These results were known to Mary Shelley when she authored Frankenstein (1819), although she does not name the method of revitalization of the monster. The revitalization of monsters with electricity later became a stock theme in horror films.
As the public familiarity with electricity as the lifeblood of the Second Industrial Revolution grew, its wielders were more often cast in a positive light,^[77] such as the workers who "finger death at their gloves' end as they piece and repiece the living wires" in Rudyard Kipling's 1907 poem Sons of Martha.^[77] Electrically powered vehicles of every sort featured large in adventure stories such as those of Jules Verne and the Tom Swift books.^[77] The masters of electricity, whether fictional or real—including scientists such as Thomas Edison, Charles Steinmetz or Nikola Tesla—were popularly conceived of as having wizard-like powers.^[77]
With electricity ceasing to be a novelty and becoming a necessity of everyday life in the later half of the 20th century, it required particular attention by popular culture only when it stops flowing,^[77] an event that usually signals disaster.^[77] The people who keep it flowing, such as the nameless hero of Jimmy Webb’s song "Wichita Lineman" (1968),^[77] are still often cast as heroic, wizard-like figures.^[77]

Electrical phenomena in nature

Electricity is not a human invention, and may be observed in several forms in nature, a prominent manifestation of which is lightning. Many interactions familiar at the macroscopic level, such as touch, friction or chemical bonding, are due to interactions between electric fields on the atomic scale. The Earth's magnetic field is thought to arise from a natural dynamo of circulating currents in the planet's core.^[71] Certain crystals, such as quartz, or even sugar, generate a potential difference across their faces when subjected to external pressure.^[72] This phenomenon is known as piezoelectricity, from the Greek piezein (πιέζειν), meaning to press, and was discovered in 1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie. The effect is reciprocal, and when a piezoelectric material is subjected to an electric field, a small change in physical dimensions take place.^[72]
Some organisms, such as sharks, are able to detect and respond to changes in electric fields, an ability known as electroreception,^[73] while others, termed electrogenic, are able to generate voltages themselves to serve as a predatory or defensive weapon.^[3] The order Gymnotiformes, of which the best known example is the electric eel, detect or stun their prey via high voltages generated from modified muscle cells called electrocytes.^[3][4] All animals transmit information along their cell membranes with voltage pulses called action potentials, whose functions include communication by the nervous system between neurons and muscles.^[74] An electric shock stimulates this system, and causes muscles to contract.^[75] Action potentials are also responsible for coordinating activities in certain plants and mammals.^[74]