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How to cut down electricity bill?(Ecomonic Times, The (India) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 5--Life without television and hot water boilers may seem straight out of an Amar Chitra Katha for most urbanites, but it's no fun picking up that steep electricity bill which gets slipped under the door every month. Yet, few in this country have bothered to think up alternatives to expensive fuels. In rural India, solar lanterns are getting more popular, says Ruchika Chawla of Delhi's Teri (The Energy and Resources Institute). If villagers have learned how to be environmentally savvy, what is stopping their smarty-pants city brethren from looking at similar options? Perhaps the high initial costs of installing these appliances. For example, a 250-litre solar water heating system costs Rs 34,000, says Ajay Kulkarni of Pune's Bipin Engineers, which supplies large common solar heating systems to apartments. To cushion this additional one-time expenditure, Bank of Maharashtra, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank grant soft five-year loans at 2 percent to individuals, says Kulkarni. Monthly installment would work out to Rs 400-500, which is worth it, given the lifetime savings that follow. A switchover to solar energy suddenly does not seem as daunting, with easy installments and monthly savings on electricity. "After using a solar water heater, my electricity bill has fallen by Rs 250 a month," says Jayshree Kuber, a 52-year-old theatreperson, who has been using it for over a year. "Once it rained continuously for five days and the heater still worked. It works as well in foggy winters too." Maintenance of the system, shared by 12 flat owners in her apartment block, totals a negligi ble Rs 4,000 a year. The government has clearly figured out the advantage of going green. Plans are under way to make solar panels mandatory for new constructions in Pune and Mumbai. Says Mumbai builder Nainesh Shah of Everest group, "Thane Municipal Corporation gives apartments with solar panels a 10 percent rebate on property tax." Kuber, a diehard solar convert, has graduated to a four-container solar cooker. In a single session, the appliance can roast semolina and peanuts, simmer up a vegetable curry and cook rice. "My LPG cylinder would run for 25 days earlier. Now the tenure's increased to 40. A 15-day profit," says the mother of two who is also a kitchen queen. Shirish Patel of Land Research Institute, a non-profit trust, sells an LPG variant of the regular cooker. Called EcoCooker, it saves 75 percent fuel by using a different design of cooking part. This device has been sold to a couple of canteens, says Patel. One such canteen that earlier consumed 15 cylin ders a month, now needs just four. The cooker, says Patel, works on four principles. One, the flame is small in relation to the cooker's diameter and cooks on the simmer. Two, it is insulated and its top is covered. The third. saving is in switching it off before the process of cooking is complete--it continues to cook in its own heat. Four, you can cook different items in stacked containers. Aditi Harishchandrakar, 52, a horticulturist from Pune, relies on LPG for heating. "I buy a Rs 290 cylinder every three months. The water gets heated fast and is good enough for my family of six." She says that its annual maintenance involves only a battery recharge of Rs 30-35. Harishchandrakar had paid Rs 4,000 for the appliance four years ago. Today it costs as little as Rs 1,300, says Swati Desai, 44, a school teacher in Valsad, Gujarat, who bought an LPG heater three months ago. "Every month, I save Rs 300 to 400." She has already recovered her initial cost. It is not lack of optio ns, but awareness that is keeping people from trying out novel energy resources, which are not just environmentally friendly but also cost-effective. R&D efforts are on to configure a wider range of solar appliances, like air-conditioners and televisions with invertors. But these are yet to go mainstream. Ground-level devices today are mostly restricted to lighting, water heaters, cookers and LPG and CNG cylinder-fitted cars. But it is basic equipment that goes a long way in budgeting. Effecting energy efficiency Delhi consumer organisation VOICE, in a recent report on promoting energy efficiency, has come out with household tips to reduce energy costs. While at first glance the points seem rather common-sensical, they do need to be underscored. 1. Cooking with covered lids can save up to 20 percent energy. Use smaller appliances and cook on simmer. 2. A microwave uses a quarter of the energy that the conventional oven gobbles up. 3. Avoid opening oven doors-th e 'peek' can cause the temperature to drop by 15 degree celsius. 4. Let frozen food thaw before cooking, as it can save 30 minutes a kg in cooking time. 5. Refrigerators should not be placed right against the wall or under sunlight. Ventilation can save 15 percent energy. 6. Allow food to cool before refrigeration. Check the door seal and keep the temperature only as low as required. A change in one degree can save 5 percent consumption. 7. Buy a fridge that is the right size-ideally, one that is two-thirds full. 8. Washing machines should also be two-thirds full and shorter cycles are advisable for lightly soiled clothes. Soaking clothes in detergents, rather than using hot water, saves costs. You can save 1,350 kilowatt hours of electricity a year if you use only cold water. Clean the lint filter after use. A clogged vent consumes energy needlessly and may become a fire hazard. For drying, nothing works out cheaper than the sun! 9. Turn on the air-conditioner early on hot days. If the machine has adjustable louvers, tilt them toward the ceiling when cooling, and towards the floor while heating. Check the ceiling for weather-proofing. Even if your ceiling is insulated, air leaks can cause up to 20 percent summer heat gains and 25 percent heat loss. 10. North-facing windows keep the sun out in summers and let it in during winters. 11. Uncurtained windows can rob you of heat in winter and turn your house into an oven in the summer. Curtains must be closed at the top, with a boxed pelmet to prevent summer heat. In winter it works the other way. 12. Using one 15-watt compact fluorescent lamp instead of a 75-watt incandescent bulb reduces power consumption by around 480 kWh (kilowatt-hour) over its lifetime or Rs 1,920 at Rs 4 per kWh. 13. Use overhanging eaves and a well-planned garden in the balcony or verandah. TNN |