How to reduce Power, Gas and Water consumption in our domestic life

Electrical Power

-----------------------

1. The main usage of electrical consumption are in the air conditioners, water boilers and electric cooking. These home appliances consume more than 1 to 3 kw/hr. There are many ways to reduce the heavy usage which in turn reduces the greenhouse effect of the earth.

a. The air conditioners can be substituted with powerful house fan which consumes less than 100W, that is less than 10 times the power usage of a normal air conditioner. Alternative, switching on only an air conditioner with the addition of fans will save more energy instead of switching numerous air conditioning units. The comfortable room temperature is around 27 degree Celsius. Any colder temperature will require blanket or sweater and frequent visit to the toilet.

b. If slow and long period of cooking is required, using charcoal will be more appropriate. It is also known that charcoal cooking produces better cooking because of even heat distribution.

c. The spotlights burn a lot of power. Change it to the energy saving lights.

d. Using Solar heater.

e. Special heat reflective paint painted on the roof top and external walls and planting grass or having a garden over the roof will reduce the heat penetrating into the house making the house cooler and thus reduce the load on air conditioning.

f. Connect a Power Saver if there are numerous lightings in the house. It can reduce the current usage which directly lowers the power consumption usage. The more the lightings, the more is the power savings. There is however not much power savings from other electrical appliances.

Gas

----------

Frying with a big fire give the food a shiny, crispy exterior and soft interior texture. The food tastes better. The nutrients will be contained under the crispy skin. The cooking time will be shorten.

Frying with small fire for long period will produce tough meat texture or soggy vegetables. The nutrients in the meat and vegetables will be destroyed by overcooking.

Pressure cookers save fuel gas. With high pressure inside the cooker, the boiling point for cooking is correspondingly lowered. Tough meat softens more quickly than in normal cooking which needs more gas. The food inside the pressure cooker will continue to boil for sometime even after removing from the fire because of the higher internal cooker pressure.

Water

-----------

Most of the shower system has a valve attachment to slow the volume of the water gushing out through the sprayer. Most of family members will simply turn the tap to maximum regardless of water wastage. Similarly add water valves to all water taps.

Place sealed bottles or containers in the sanitation flush system to reduce the volume of water needed for flushing.

Water the plants with water used for washing rice, vegetables and seafood. It is a natural fertiliser.

Collect water used for washing clothes to flush toilet.