The amount of lighting, electronics and electrical equipment we have is responsible for most of our excessive energy use, especially when it is left on after it is needed. With a few steps, you can start to drastically lower the amount of electricity Essential Electrician Tools that is used in your home. Two of the best ways to do this are to just be more aware of what is on and what is off, and to install automated options for turning your devices, lighting and other electrical items on and off throughout the day.
Lights are one of the first places to start. We often turn them on every time we enter a room, even if there is already enough light to see by. Furthermore, they are frequently left on when nobody is in the room. When Can I Get Electrical License a room is empty, there is normally very little reason to keep the lights on. It’s OK to leave a little bit of lighting on, to deter intruders or prevent injuries, but you shouldn’t leave the lights on in every room.
If you still have incandescent light bulbs, start by replacing them with more energy efficient CFL and LED alternatives. Not only are these lights much less efficient than other options, but they generate a ton of heat. In addition to light bulb replacement, automated switch options can go a long way toward saving extensive amounts of electricity. Occupancy sensors are particularly handy, because they can be set to turn lights on when someone enters a room and back off a certain amount of time after they leave the room. You can adjust the sensitivity according to your needs. This type of automation works with a combination of motion and heat sensing technologies.
Aside from lighting, our electronic devices are some of the largest drains on energy in our homes. The majority of these devices, such as televisions, computers, DVRs, cable boxes and more are left in a “Standby” state, so that we can quickly turn them on with the press of a button. In order to fully automate these to improve their electrical usage is to add them to a type of power strip. While the most manual of these will require you to flip the switch to the off position whenever you are not using them, some power strips can detect when your devices are in standby mode. They will then shut off all power. Others will detect when a device plugged into a particular outlet is turned on or off. Whenever this device is shut off, then the strip shuts off power to everything else on the strip.
In addition to these simple automation techniques, there are some advanced installations that can further automate and streamline your home’s electrical system. With the installation of a variety of sensors and other devices, you can program everything to turn on and off at specified times, or even to respond to control from a smart phone or other device. This automation will make your life simpler, lower the load on your electrical system and reduce your electricity bill.
