Tag: Energy
BEE 5 Star Rated Ceiling Fans: Myths And Realities
When we were setting up our house and were looking for electrical appliances to buy, our contractor, who was working on the electrical work, told us not to buy BEE 5 star ceiling fans. The reason he gave us was that there was complaints that BEE 5 star rated ceiling fans do not give good air delivery. We looked around for some data and agreed to what he was saying and installed a regular ceiling fan. Three years later (last week) we decided to give them a try and got
Replacing old or buying new, why a BEE 5 star rated refrigerator always makes sense
Since last few weeks we have started auditing some homes in Mumbai to get a feeling of different kind of appliances available in various homes and their consumption pattern. And one interesting fact that has come to our notice is that the refrigerators are the second biggest consumers of electricity in any home after air conditioners, that too if there is a significant use of air conditioners in that home. Else refrigerators are truly the biggest consumers. The observations
Dishwashers: How much electricity do they use and how to use them efficiently?
Most stereotypical maids in old bollywood movies were always shown as those washing utensils with their hands. Cleaning, rinsing and drying utensils were and are still very commonly done with hands. But slowly and steadily dishwashers have started entering Indian kitchens. Many people in metros and big cities have started buying dishwashers to make every day cleaning of utensils more automated and reliable. As adding any other appliance adds to the electricity bills,
Excessive Lighting can cause Light Pollution
On our recent visit to a mall we were impressed to see that most of the lighting in the parking was done using energy efficient T5 tubelights. But our happiness vanished soon when we realized that there were so many tubelights placed so close to each other that there was excessive lighting. We felt that the benefits of efficient option were offset by improper use of the same. The incident made us think, is there something called light pollution? And to our surprise
Street lighting and General Illumination options for residential complexes: HPSV, LED, Fluorescent and Solar
Street lighting and general illumination are very important for security in all residential complexes. Parking lots and pathways should be lit uniformly as it provides a sense of security. Although lighting may be a small portion of a residential complex’s electricity bills it is a very important aspect for the well being of the residents. Lately, with rising electricity bills, management committees of various residential complexes have started thinking about various
Powerstrips or Surge Protector can help cut standby power or vampire power
How would you feel if you have to pay for something that you didn’t even use? Most people will feel bad unless they have a lot of money that they don’t care about. Paying for standby power or vampire power is one such thing. In one of our previous article (Switch off the Plug Point) we talked about standby power. Standby power or vampire power is the “electricity” that you do
Cloths Dryer can add a lot of units on your electricity bills
Drying clothes outside the window or outside the house on a cloth line has been very common in India. Even till date most of the people use this method to dry their clothes post wash. But because of influence from the west and movement of NRIs back to India, sale of cloth dryers has been increasing in India. Cloths Dryer provides quick and easy solution to dry clothes post wash with lesser need for ironing. But all this convenience comes at a cost that is increase
Cooktop Comparison: Gas, Electric and Induction
Recently while interacting with a Bijli Bachao reader, we came across a question: which cooktop should I buy Gas or Induction? And this made us realize: Hey! We didn't think about it! Cooking typically is a small component of the whole energy requirement in a house (especially in most middle and upper class urban homes), which some people typically ignore. Although rising LPG/PNG costs does cause a furore but rarely do we compare it with other form of energy: electricity.
Quick Cool on Air Conditioner does not cool quickly
Coming into a room after being through a hot weather outside, most people would want to cool down their rooms quickly. What many people do is that they turn on the air conditioner in the room in quick cool mode thinking that it will cool the room quickly. But does the quick cool mode really cool a room quickly? Does the motor in the air conditioner run faster when you start it in the quick cool mode? It does NOT. So why is it called quick cool? It is mostly because
Replace old inefficient air conditioners with BEE star rated air conditioners to save electricity
Very recently, while interacting with some of the readers of Bijli Bachao, we came across a few people who were getting very high electricity bills and were concerned about it. On investigating more, we found out that they were using Air Conditioners that were more than 10-12 years old and hence were quite inefficient. We realized that a lot of people hold on to the old inefficient appliances worrying about the cost of buying new efficient appliances, but what they