How should Households Optimize their Power Consumption due to Hiking Energy Prices

By: Rizalie Y. Pino

Philippines's Electricity Production from 1990 to 2021 [6]

These days, the tremendous amount of energy that is consumed all over the world has seen a slight decrease as a direct result of the rising cost of energy [1]. The recent spikes in the price of coal and gas are not the product of a single "shock event," either on the supply or demand side of the market. Rather, they are the product of a combination of supply and demand forces that steadily tightened markets over the course of several months or even years. This process took place over a period of time [2]. The ever-increasing prices of gas, oil, and coal have required a great number of establishments all over the world to reduce their expenditures on energy. Because of this, now is a good time to start investigating the facility's power consumption and determining where the energy is going, because for many companies, if their energy bills continue to rise and they do nothing to stop it, the only option left is to go out of business [1].

Ways in Optimizing Power Consumption

In order to reduce energy costs as energy costs grow, it's more crucial than ever to optimize power utilization. There are numerous actions you can take, regardless of whether you own a home or a business, to lower your energy usage and lower your energy costs.

Homeowners can learn where their homes are leaking energy and what they can do to reduce their monthly utility bills by having an energy audit performed on their properties. You can save between 5 and 30 percent on your monthly energy bill by implementing the energy efficiency modifications recommended in a home energy assessment. These changes will help protect the wellbeing of your family and the structure of your home [3].

Another way of optimizing electric energy is to upgrade to energy-efficient appliances and lighting. Investing in newer, more energy-efficient appliances and lighting is one of the most effective ways to cut down on one's overall energy consumption. You may save a large amount of money on your monthly energy bills by switching to energy-efficient appliances because they consume far less energy than typical appliances do. In a similar vein, lighting that is energy efficient consumes less energy and has the potential to live longer than conventional incandescent bulbs [4].

Eliminate vampire power: remove idle electronics is a small action but can make bigger changes.  Even when turned off, electronics such as televisions, microwaves, scanners, and printers still consume power through their standby modes. Even when they are plugged in, certain chargers continue to draw in very modest amounts of energy (a good judge of this is if a charger feels warm to the touch). The entire amount of electricity that is consumed by unused electronic devices in the United States is equivalent to the annual output of twelve power plants (EPA) [5].

Another effective ways in cutting the electric bills is to make use of a power strip to lessen the load on your plugs. Use a power strip to turn off all of your electronic devices at once and save money by avoiding paying for "vampire power." By toggling the switch on your power strip, you can achieve the same result as disconnecting each socket individually from the wall, so preventing the loss of phantom energy [5]

Just by turning off the lights when not necessary is a big impact in an energy consumption and this is also one of some ways in optimizing power consumption. The list above if practiced and done can make a big difference in the optimization of the energy consumption.

References

[1]E. Csanyi, "How should facilities optimize their power consumption due to hiking energy prices," Linkedin, 2022. 

[2]C. M. J. Alvarez, "What is behind soaring energy prices and what happens next?," Iea, 2021.

[3]S. Minos, "Energy Saver 101 Infographic: Home Energy Audits," energy.gov.

[4]nrdc.org, "Cut your utility bill energy effecient appliances," nrdc.org.

[5]H. University, "Top 5 Steps to Reduce Your Energy Consumption," Harvard University.

[6]D. o. Enrgy, "CEIC," 2021. [Online].