Energy savings: tips for using appliances more efficiently

We know that life is expensive. Setting foot in the supermarket causes pain in the wadding and those who have a car suffer with each weekly increase in gasoline. Everyone has reason to suffer, because rent, common charges and bills don’t stop either. Yes, even him Chocolate that you eat daily to calm the anxiety becomes unbearable.

In this context it becomes inevitable to tighten the belt. Every peso and every expense counts. Last July, between so many hammer blows for the little pig From our country, good news has arrived: the government project to create a Stabilization and Energy Emergency Fund was about to become law, after having been the subject of discussions and modifications in the Chamber of Deputies. and in the Senate.

In concrete terms, a contribution of $15 million will be allocated to contain during 2022 the increases expected during the second half of the year for regulated users whose monthly consumption is less than or equal to 350 kWh. In other words, the project will benefit 90% of residential customers.

A good one for the pocket, no doubt. And that it can be even better if we consider using the electrical energy of the house more efficiently. An idea promoted in the country since 2015, through the Ministries of Energy and Housing and Urban Planning, which invite each house and apartment to be voluntarily assessed and receive an energy efficiency rating, “A+ being the best result. “G” the worst.

For this there is an instrument called Housing Energy Rating (CEV), designed by the two portfolios “This instrument is for voluntary use and aims to provide families with standardized information on the thermal and energy efficiency of housing”, explains Víctor Muñoz , industrial civil engineer, civil constructor and academic of Duoc UC.

María Luisa del Campo, director of the Kipus Technology Center at the University of Talca, says that an average house, around 85 square meters and in which three or four people live, consumes around 8,000 kWh per year. “If we take that as an annual energy expenditure, it equates to around 650 to 700,000 pesos,” he estimates.

According to the calculation, this means that an average house consumes about 95 kWh per square meter per year, which according to the energy efficiency rating is quite high. “This means that a normal house would have a fair grade between D and E, which shows that most of them have inefficiencies that need to be corrected.”

But there are ways to detect and correct home energy inefficiencies. And they’re easier to apply than you might think.

Over the past 20 years, the country’s energy expenditure has increased by nearly 30%, according to Carlos Torres, an academic at Talca University’s Faculty of Engineering. “There is generally a relationship between GDP, energy consumption and higher purchasing power, which leads to increased spending.”

This situation is not in line with that of many OECD member countries, which have managed to keep economic growth decoupled from energy consumption. That’s what he’s trying to deal with National Energy Efficiency Plan , which has been in effect since this year and which aims to provide a strategic framework for achieving carbon neutrality in 2050. The objective is that by 2035, 70% of the main categories of appliances and equipment sold on the market are energy efficient. efficient. Which should be increased to 100% by 2050.

Unfortunately, “currently we have an increase in electricity costs due to the use of televisions, computers and household appliances”, explains Víctor Muñoz. This is confirmed by a 2018 Ministry of Energy report. It states that electricity is “the only source that has increased its energy consumption from 1,692 kWh per household per year to 2,074 kWh/ , from 2009 to 2019”.

For electrical designer and professor at Duoc UC Alameda, Axel Maldonado, citizens are aware of the relevance and the need to be energy efficient. “The average user knows how necessary it is to use just enough of it and somehow tries to save energy in different processes, like turning off the light when leaving a room or unplugging devices at night.” The market also contributes its grain of sand, “delivering a variety of products for the home that facilitate this action and not only in the field of electricity, such as energy-saving bulbs, for example”.

Let’s think about making our house more energy efficient. For this, the first thing is to know which are the equipment and artifacts that require the most consumption for their use.

“In general, all devices that transform electrical energy into heat consume more. For example, the microwave, the kettle or the oven. However, since they are generally not used for a long time, they are not so intrusive in consumption, although they are demanding in the quality of the wiring of the electrical installation,” explains Axel Maldonado.

Appliances that usually have prolonged use, especially in winter and summer, are electric heaters and air conditioners. “Depending on the environmental conditions and the needs of the user, they can be connected for a long period of time per day,” says Maldonado. “According to my own statistics, these appliances consume up to 70% of the energy per month during the peak of the winter season and at the beginning of summer,” he adds.

In the following table, Professor Duoc UC lays out some of the most common appliances in homes, in descending order of the energy consumption they require for their use:

When buying this type of device, it is important to ensure that they have quality labels, such as the SEC, which is mandatory. This ensures that the equipment “is safe for handling by a common user, electrically speaking”. And along with that, consider the energy rating that appears on the label that each product should display.

Another product that does not appear in the table and which requires high energy consumption is the refrigerator, which can consume between 250 and 500 watts (W) per hour. According to the General Electricity Distribution Company (CGE), this represents up to 30.6% of a household’s monthly electricity bill. It is essential, in this case, to open the door only when necessary and to worry that it will not stay open, because it loses cold and increases its energy consumption. Similarly, an empty fridge also increases your cost – since there are fewer cold things inside, the effort to keep the temperature down is greater – so when buying a fridge, you should consider a size according to your needs.

On the site Topten.cl , that cuenta con el apoyo del Ministerio de Energía, la SEC, y WWF, entre otras organizations, puedes encontrar una guía de productos eléctricos y electrónicos (desde electrodomésticos y tecnología a vehículos, o equipos de climatización y de agua caliente) con visión de energetic efficiency. Here you can compare prices and get relevant information about your energy consumption.

For example, currently the most efficient refrigerator on the market in Chile, according to the TopTen ranking , is the Miele KS 28423 D, which consumes only 7 kWh per month, which generates an expense of only 910 pesos on the electricity bill. But where it will generate differences will be in your bank account, because it costs more than 2 million pesos.

We are talking more and more about this type of consumption: the famous standby state, which is linked to the energy consumption generated by devices when they are off but connected to the mains.

The International Energy Agency estimates that phantom consumption fluctuates between 5 and 10% of the daily total. Take the case of a television, for example. An LCD screen that is off consumes approximately 1.5 W per hour, to which must be added the expense generated by the cable service box. Its consumption, while it is off, would reach 43 W per hour.

Something similar happens with the microwave: its standby consumption is 3.08 Wh, but if the microwave is left with the door open, it increases to 25.79 Wh. Computers, video game consoles, and music equipment, among other devices, also generate phantom power, as does the cell phone or laptop charger that stays plugged in all day. Seen separately, they seem like minor expenses, but their sum translates into wasted money and energy. Axel Maldonado affirms that this expense can be avoided by a simple gesture: unplugging them after each use. Or the opposite: only plug in when it is going to be used.

Other specialists advise considering this phantom consumption at the time of purchase, in order to choose equipment that generates the least possible expense when switched off.

For Maldonado, energy efficiency is not only consuming “just and necessary”, but also doing it safely. In this sense, he calls for caution when overloading power outlets, since this can not only generate a higher electrical cost, but also cause short circuits that lead to major emergencies, such as a fire. For the same reason, “unplug after busy” should be repeated as a mantra.

It is also not recommended to use slippers or extension cords to connect appliances with high energy consumption: refrigerators, electric ovens, air conditioners, radiators, irons, hair dryers, clothes dryers, among others, as they may generate an overload, with the mentioned risk that this implies.