Its good to see energy conservation catching up with people a bit these days. Its something which is comfortably resisted in routine life of a middle class Indian like me. I personally face a lot resistence in my house with everyone finding me nagging on petty things like leave a tap dripping or a light on in the stairway etc. I keep naggin ’em anyway. Here are a few tips you could probably use to make your contribution to energy conservation.

Electricity

  • Use lower wattage bulbs and devices, wherever possible. E.g. if you can do with a 40W bulb, avoid putting a 60W. Similarly, use lower wattage CFLs.
  • Put small instant geysers if the usage is not too high for hot water. Also, instead of getting extremely hot water and mixing cold water to make it lukewarm, why not heat it to that point only.
  • When using A/C in your house, dont keep it extremely lower temperatures like 18 or 20. Rather put it on 24 or 22, once reaching the temperate, the A/C would be standing by for a while. Also, try using A/C in short spells to maintain a cool temperature along with saving some electricity bills.
  • Never leave TV, music players, mobile chargers power turned on when you are not using them.
  • Turn off monitors if you are not using a computer and need to computer running.
  • Dont use artificial lights if natural light is available and suffices the needs.
  • When working late in office, dont keep the lights other than on top of your workstation turned on.

I would also have liked to reduced the amount of electricity consumed in shopping malls and advertising hoardings if possible, however, thats still out of my hand.

Water

  • Dont leave any taps running or dripping.
  • Get periodical sanitory and plumbing checkups to ensure there is no leakages anywhere in your house’s system.
  • If possible, try and reduce the number of times we flush 🙂 and get waterless flushes for offices and houses.
  • Use bucket and wipes for car washes instead of high pressure water pipes.
  • A lot of water is wasted because of laundary not done with right water levels and too few clothes in one go.
  • Respect water in public places, whether drinking water or otherwise.

Fuel

  • Use public transport if available and feasible. This is the best option to save a lot of fuel.
  • Try driving in economy speed zone of your vehice, however hard to resist may high speeds be.
  • Keep your vehicle in good health and tyre pressure in check which could save upto 1o per cent of fuel wastage.
  • Dont leave your car ignition on unneccessarily, eg. when re-fuelling your vehicle, when waiting on a traffic light, stepping out for a minute, when stuck in a traffic jam which is stationary (you would know if you are an Asian).
  • In slow moving traffic (bumper to bumper kind), turn off your head lights if can be done away with for a while, the sound of your engine itself would tell you the difference.
  • Cook with covered vessels as much as possible.

Of course, car pooling and walking for short distance is always suggested for conserving fuel as well. Hope to see a greener tomorrow.