How to save electricity?

[Busymom]

Lynn2010:

Busymom..... wow $700+ is quite extensive unless you leave in a big detach house with swimming pools. As i've shared, we turn on 3 aircons (about 8 to 10 hrs), 1 aircon 18hrs, heated tanks - bill around $360.

Curiously (not criticize), why your kids need to wash buttocks with hot water? Mine never so are my sis kids. I dont think kids will catch a cold if they wash their buttocks with room temp water. Besides, Singapore so hot.

Thanks to this thread, I now know how far off we are in terms of consumption. Big detach house, I have not. Just an average size abode.

Maybe because we have more persons in our household, or maybe the +1 addition has caused it, as the aircons in living room has been on almost 24/7 since his arrival... (meaning I was also in the living room almost 24/7... :stupid:)

The habit of leaving the water tank heater on started from time our kids were babies... as they sometimes poo in the middle of night. You are right, it is actually ok to use cold water during daytime. Thanks for the timely suggestion.

[iRabbit]

Talking about saving water, I’ve this dehumidifier at home in one of the rooms. In a week I can collect cold water the size of one full pail which I’ll then use to splash on the toilet floor.


So to save water [it’s free, it’s from the air], buy a lot of these dehumidifiers can liao.

[peapot]

Last time I filled pails of water collected from rain, the NEA came to my Hse and ask me to empty the pail. Denggue danger he says. Now I wonder how come he knows. Did my neighbor tipped him off??!


But how come my neighbor will know? My maid tipped the neighbor off??

[Nebbermind]

FQW:

Talking about saving water, I've this dehumidifier at home in one of the rooms. In a week I can collect cold water the size of one full pail which I'll then use to splash on the toilet floor.


So to save water [it's free, it's from the air], buy a lot of these dehumidifiers can liao.

But they run on electricity leh!! :evil:

[Nebbermind]

peapot:

Last time I filled pails of water collected from rain, the NEA came to my Hse and ask me to empty the pail. Denggue danger he says. Now I wonder how come he knows. Did my neighbor tipped him off??!


But how come my neighbor will know? My maid tipped the neighbor off??

u live in landed prop? Even HDB's balcony is covered and not easy to collect water.

[Funz]

My utility bills were in the $300+ sometimes even going up to $400. Both my electricity bill and water consumption was way above the national average.


We have 2 aircon compressors and 6 split units, an old fisher and paykel washing machine and a separate dryer of the same brand. We did away with the dryer, changed the washer to a new samsung washer with the maximum energy saving ticks, changed out 1 compressor and 3 split units to one, also with, max energy saving ticks. That brought our electricity bills down a fair bit.

For water bills, my helper used to water our plants 1st thing in the morning and at the same time wash my patio floor with running hose. Told her to stop that and water the plants only in evenings if there is no rain. And to collect the water she uses to wash the vege and rice to water the plants. She was also washing all the toilets everyday, as in scrubbing the shower area, washing the floor of the changing area, etc. As we do use cleaning agents that prevents mildew growth I told her that there is no need to wash the toilets everyday. 2 times a week is sufficient. Also told her that there is no need to mop the floor everyday. Sweep/vacuum everyday, mop alternate days.

That helped to bring the water consumption down to that of the average household. And our utilities came down to high $200+.

Recently we did some renovation and changed all our lights to energy saving lights. Not sure if it will make much of a diff but it was a heavy initial investment. I suspect my electricity bills may actually go up since the kids, instead of sharing 1 room, are now sleeping in their own rooms. 1 more set of air-con is working at night now.

[Funz]

Busymom:

Imami:

Hey, good idea! Let's start a grocery thread!

Think there is one somewhere already...

Yah I remember posting some stuff about our hsehold groceries.

[limlim]

puff:

In your case if your aircon is inverter than turn on 3 definitely will save more than 2 . I remember the sales man told me for inverter u will start saving only when u turn on 3.

The only thing I believe what the salesman says about a product, is the price of the product that he is selling. But even then, sometimes they can get the price wrong.

[limlim]

Busymom:

Actually we have 3 aircons in the living room, due to the L-shape design. DH said that even if we just on 2 units, it is equivalent to having 3 on... hence the high consumption of electricity. Makes sense?

So do we save any electricity by switching on 2 instead of 3, or no difference? :scratchhead:

Using 2 will use less electricity than 3. How much difference.. is difficult to say..

Normally, you turn on additional appliances (doing same function) only when you are worried that the main appliance might \"overwork\". If the main appliance is capable of the load, there is no need to use additional appliances.

[Imami]

My water heater is the storage tank type. To consume less energy, shd we (1) on the heater five minutes before shower and then off it or (2) on for an hour or two for the heater to work and then off it. Use whatever hot water it has stored until I runs out.


One of my colleagues uses method 1. I thought this way seems to use the heater like the instant one…