In light of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s decision to grant Eskom tariff hikes of around 25% for the next three years, we need to be creative in the way we utilize electricity, not only for our pockets, but also for the wellbeing of our planet.
To help you to see where it would be practical to reduce your energy usage, we take a look at various household appliances and the energy they use.
Large home appliances like refrigerators and dryers are typical examples of energy-hungry devices, but the real energy hogs are not necessarily the large appliances. Small devices, and especially the ‘always on’ devices, are collectively sucking a lot of energy and costing us more than we may realize.
Small but hungry energy hogs include mobile phone chargers and laptop power adaptors. These devices continue to draw energy even when the devices they charge have been disconnected. ‘Always on’ appliances like printers or speakers are called ‘energy vampires’ because they suck up power even when they’re turned off or in an idle state.
Here is a list of some of the ‘surprising’ home energy hogs and vampires:
- Plasma TV – a typical 27-inch CRT TV uses about 110 to 120 watts, a 42-inch LCD TV uses around 200 watts, while a 42-inch plasma TV uses up to 325 watts.
- Digital picture frames – sucking power around the clock.
- Videogame consoles – high level graphics processing that creates visually stunning games on devices like the Xbox and PlayStation3 require a lot of energy.
- Battery chargers – although these devices use a small amount of electricity, 7 to 10 watts, if they are left plugged in to the electric outlet they continue to draw power. Most homes have more than one charger, and the collective energy they use can be considerable.
- Dehumidifiers – an energy-guzzler that typically uses twice the annual energy consumption of a standard 27-inch TV.
- Coffee makers – while this device consumes a lot of power, leaving the warmer on for long periods can really push up your daily electricity usage.
- Air purifiers – a typical room air purifier operating continuously uses about 60% more power than a new refrigerator uses.
- Incandescent light bulbs – replacing incandescent bulbs with the more energy efficient light bulbs can save around 3.7% of electricity consumption.
- Always-on devices – devices such as printers, speakers, computer monitors. Even in sleep or idle mode, these devices still consume power.
- External power adaptors – these adaptors for laptops, computers and radios convert electricity to energy.
- Aquariums – one of those always-on items that can be dangerous, because the owners don’t usually think about the tank’s energy efficiency. A typical aquarium uses about the same number of kilowatt-hours per year as a home computer or dishwasher.
Wherever possible, turn off or unplug devices when they’re not in use. We could also change a device’s default settings to save energy, for example, manually lowering the default brightness and intensity settings on a TV.
Keeping in mind the amount of energy we’re using at all times, and knowing how much we can save by making small changes in our habits, can help us cope with the high electricity rates. We all have the power to save power.
