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Concealed Electrical House Wiring: Things to take care of to save electricity

By on April 22, 2016

No one likes wires dangling from here and there in their house. It makes a house look messy and thus people try all ways to hide them. Even the architects and interior decorators try and suggest various ways to hide them. Recently we visited a friend’s house and observed that there was no single wire visible in the house. All the wiring was done so well that wires of Air Conditioners, Entertainment system, etc was hidden and nothing was showing up. The whole thing looked very aesthetic, but there was one problem: there was standby or vampire power loss.

The real problem is dependence on remote control

The house had 3 air conditioners but all air conditioners were connected directly through the mains or the MCB or the miniature circuit breaker. The only way to switch off the air conditioner was remote control. Even for the entertainment system the switching off mechanism was the remote control. As we have discussed in our previous articles: Switch off the Plug Point and Powerstrips or Surge Protector can help cut standby power or vampire power most electrical appliances consume power on standby. It is more or less depending on the kind of appliance and efficiency of appliance. In our house we have a 3 star window AC which is five years old and a 5 star Split AC which is 2 years old. The 3 stars AC consume 4 W on standby and interestingly 5 stars split AC does not have any standby power consumption. We are in process of doing more research to find out if standby power is dependent on star rating or split/window. But for now we know that there is a possibility of electricity loss if appliance is not switched off from the plug point.

Solutions

We have already talked about usage of power strips in our previous article. Another solution can be to just have an on/off switch on the wall that can be used to switch on or off an appliance. It can be a very elegant solution and can also look good on the wall. It can be placed close to the bed or any other place where it is convenient to switch off. By keeping it close it can be as convenient as a remote control and can also save electricity.

Although one may argue that the stand by power consumption of appliances is very less and it is insignificant compared to the electricity wastage in big power guzzling appliances, but every unit of power saved in totality can become significant number and can become useful. Small things like using switches while doing concealed wiring can help save electricity.

About the Author:
Abhishek Jain is an Alumnus of IIT Bombay with almost 10 years of experience in corporate before starting Bijli Bachao in 2012. His passion for solving problems moved him towards Energy Sector and he is keen to learn about customer behavior towards Energy and find ways to influence the same towards Sustainability. .

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