Ways to Conserve Energy - An Electricians Perspective

by David L. Electrician

You look at your electrical bill and cringe at how much you are paying. There are some practical and cost effective ways to bring this cost down. In this blog, we are going to cover some of the ways to conserve energy - From an Electrician's point of view.

LED Verses Incandescent equals conserving energy

Energy Inefficiencies

Lights Left On - This is a common problem everyone has, whether it is at the office or at home. Lights left on not only burns out bulbs faster, but also costs you more money month to month. A great idea for energy saving is in areas that are not used a lot is to install occupancy sensors. The lights will turn themselves off when there is no one moving around in the area.

Another great tip is if there are a lot of windows in the room, try opening up the blinds or curtains to allow natural light from outside, negating the use of lights entirely.

Old Fixtures - Older style fixtures usually use older technologies to illuminate the room and not even do a good job at that. Updating the fixtures with newer LED lighting not only will put the light where you need it, it will do it for a fraction of the cost. This is especially important for large spaces where the cost is amplified by the number of fixtures in the room. The savings in a commercial space could add up to hundreds of dollars every month.

Older Appliances/Equipment - That old fridge might work, but is costing you a heap month to month. Consider replacing older appliances with newer, modern ones. They are all come with what is called an ENERGY STAR Rating. What is this you might ask? Well an ENERGY STAR Rating tells the consumer what the appliance will use on a scale from high to low based upon other models on the market. This way, you will have an idea as to how efficient of a unit you are buying and what the month to month will be roughly.

Equipment around the office will be very similar to the example of a fridge. As time goes on, that dinosaur of a copy machine may work, but its overhead month to month might alarm you. It might be a short term financial pain for a long term gain scenario.

Use of Dimmers, Timers, Photocells and Similar Devices - Adding these types of devices to a space will allow you more control of how long the electrical item is in use and under what conditions. For example, say using a dimmer on a large bank of lights. It will give you the advantage of energy savings. and also will allow comfort on the eyes depending upon time of day

Avoid Using Appliances - If you have a BBQ and it is a hot summer day, consider using it instead of the stove. A stove will just create extra heat in the home and suck more energy. If you live in a warm climate, you might consider using a clothesline to dry your clothing instead of a power hungry dryer. That dime you save, might turn into a dollar pretty quick if you think about it.

Cooling a Space in the Summer

Air conditioning is very nice to have in the summertime, but does not help the bottom line. There are other ways to cool off a space without running the air conditioner off its feet.