Continuing my energy journey

After listing all my appliances’ energy consumption, it’s much easier to manage everything. It helps me understand where I need to make cuts, and what appliances I need to learn to use more efficiently.

Sharing is caring

As I said in the last post, I’d noticed my housemates get up more or less at the same time as I do, as they need to leave for work. We all have usually do our own independent routines, having breakfast at different times. Today, we agreed we’d all meet up in the kitchen to brew our morning coffee together. This time, instead of brewing 3 separate kettles, we all used the same boiled water. Our kettle’s energy rate is 1,85 kw, while our stove’s is 1,35 kw, so we also opted for the latter option.

Walking rules

Even though I live on the third floor, I usually use the elevator when going out and returning home. Instead of just using the stairs when the elevator is occupied and I’m impatient, I’ve decided to use the stairs more. I’m not ready to give up the elevator for returning home, as going up 6 flights of stairs is too much for me. Despite that, I’ve been successfully been going down the stairs instead of using the elevator when exiting home.

No over-charging

I’ve been making sure I don’t leave any electronics plugged in after they’re fully charged. I’ve been charging my phone and laptop only once a day, and shutting the latter down more often, in order to conserve more battery. Despite that, I can’t give up leaving my electronics charging during the night, as I want to wake up with a full battery.

Heating is overrated

I had some left-overs from dinner the night before, so I decided to skip on heating my lunch on the microwave. It’s already a common practice of mine, but making enough food for there to be left-overs for the next meal is also something that minimises my energy use, by not needing to use the stove on every single meal.

Energy consumption:

• Boiling water for coffee 3m 0.068 kWh (/3 housemates = 0.023 kWh)
• Using the desk lamp in my room while getting ready in the morning 1h 0.04 kWh
• Bathroom lights 20m 0.006 kWh
• Charging laptop 1h 0.87 kWh
• Charging phone 2h 0.01 kWh
• Cooking dinner 1h 1.35 kWh
• Desk lamp (19pm-1am) 0.2 kWh
• Dishwasher 1h40 1.85 kWh
• Ceiling lights (19pm-1am) 0.14 kWh

Total energy use on this day: 4.489 kWh