Solar Power DIY Blog

There are ways to reduce your power usage, without changing your lifestyle all that much.  You would be surprised how little things can make a very big difference. Let’s take a look at some.

1. Removing or reducing dummy loads
Turn off your stereo or entertainment unit when you’re not using it at the wall socket. You may have to unplug it at the wall socket. All appliances that have a remote control unless they are turned off at the wall are not really turned off. They go in to what is called stand by mode. Even in stand by mode a small amount of power is used.

Limit how long cordless devices are plugged in charging. They do not need to be plugged in twenty-four hour a day. If you use the item infrequently leave it plugged in for as long as it needs to be plugged in and then take it out of the wall. If it needs to be recharged occasionally, then do so, but do not leave it plugged in indefinitely.

2. Turn lights off when not in use and use night lights.
Consider using night-lights throughout the house. For example in the toilet or the bathroom. Often where there are little children in the household, the bathroom light may be left on all night. What if, instead, you had one or two very small night lights set up in the hallway near the bathroom?

3. Look at the energy efficiency of appliances
Have a look at the appliances you use. When you go to buy an appliance, buy the energy efficient version of the appliance. Look at what the power rating of the appliance is. For an example an entertainment unit. Decide what your needs really are, as to whether you really need that five hundred watt speaker system.

Replace small wall-plugged appliances with battery powered equivalents.
Small appliances could be replaced with battery-powered units where practical.  You could use rechargeable batteries that you could charge with a small solar powered battery charger.

Think about whether you need your radio alarm clock, which is plugged into the wall all the time.This is especially helpful with a solar power set up because otherwise your inverter has to stay on and active all the time to keep the clock running.  The inverter itself will probably use more power than what the clock uses.  If you have a battery version of the clock, then your inverter won’t be needed on all the time except when it is really needed for other appliances.

Refrigeration is a very large power user. Use DC refrigerators and freezers rather than the common AC types. Again you’re reducing your inverter use, and DC refrigerators are far more efficient than AC refrigerators. You will have to pay a lot more in solar panels to keep you AC refrigerator and freezer running than  the extra costs involved in getting a DC refrigerator and freezer.  In my experience an AC fridge will usually use 3 times or more the amount of power than the equivalent unit converted to DC.

4. Use efficient lighting
Use fluorescent or compact fluorescent lights. If using a solar or home power system use DC lighting, rather AC lighting. This reduces the use of the inverter and DC lighting is more efficient than AC lighting, providing you use efficient DC lights like florescent or compact florescent types. A technology that uses LEDs is becoming available, and becoming more popular.

When you’re designing your house, consider the lighting options. Do you need a very large light that lights up the whole room, or can you use task lighting? What I mean by task lighting is to set up a number of smaller lights in the room that lights up smaller areas where you perform certain tasks.  For example lighting up the corner where you commonly read or lighting up separate areas in the kitchen. Areas that do not need to be lit up at a given time are not lit up, hence saving power.  Power is also saved because the whole room isn’t lit up.

5.Heating, Cooking and Cooling
Avoid heating and cooking using electricity, especially with a solar or home power system. Use other forms such as that which use wood and gas. Some simple house design changes can save on heating and cooling costs. Build your house using passive solar principles. Even simply thinking about the orientation of a standard type of house in relation to the sun and where you put your windows will go a long way.

Conclusion
So you see, with just some simple thinking, and simple changing of small habits you can reduce the power that you require quite dramatically.

Tags: appliance efficiency, economise power usage, reduce your power usage

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm and is filed under General Power System Discussions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.