Why the Hike in Electricity Bill?

Hubby, who is responsible for the bills around the house, has been lamenting for quite a while about the gradual hike in our monthly electricity bill. Since the money for the bill does not come from my pocket, I usually choose to conveniently shut one ear. *giggles*

Unfortunately, the hike apparently really bothered Hubby; to the point that he started unplugging every single electrical appliance around the house (save for the fridge) when not in use. Not just turning it off, but removing the socket from the electrical wall outlet too! Uurrggghhh… do you know how frustrating it is to have to crawl over and under various pieces of furniture just to plug the TV or the phone charger socket back into the wall… every single day???

In reality, all appliance plugged in will bleed some energy. This is typically called standby electricity loss as it is often associated with electronics in idle or standby mode. Unfortunately for Hubby, what we saved from just unplugging our appliances wasn’t significant enough to make a huge difference in our electricity bill. (But still, kudos to him for trying!)

Since then, he has shifted his energy (pun intended) to isolating other main contributors to the bill – in this case the air conditioner. Due to the recent hot and dry spell, we have had to rely on air conditioners to cope with the unbearable heat. Nowadays, we have to turn on both air conditioners at the ground floor (as opposed to one) just to cool the area. Not only that, we’ve resorted to lowering the temperature settings, increasing the fan speeds and using it for longer periods too. Hence, if we do not find a way to reduce our air conditioner use, it will always be the main culprit for the spike in our monthly electricity consumption, translating to a hike in our electricity bill. (Well, either that or Malaysia freezes over, in which case we will need heaters!)

Tenaga Nasional Berhad recently released a cool series of videos on helping us save our electricity consumption by utilizing some useful energy efficiency tips. And here are some tips related to air conditioners that I got from the TNB Energy Savings at Home website, which I subsequently shared with dear Hubby:

Keep your air conditioner filter clean to allow it to run efficiently and save more (and sweat less)!

Set your air conditioner between 23-25degC for optimum coolness with higher savings.

Set your air conditioner timer to switch off a few hours after you’ve fallen asleep to be more energy efficient.

Ensure doors and windows are closed when using the air conditioner, to help the room cool faster.

Also, some other tips that were quite an eye opener for me too:

Even if you’re a supermom, sometimes it pays to hold off the washing. Wait until you have a full load of laundry to reduce usage of the washing machine.

De-clutter your fridge to allow cool air to circulate more efficiently.

Choose a cold wash over a hot wash, as the latter makes the washing machine work harder.

Check out TNB’s other bright ideas by visiting this link. There are also a total of 20 energy efficiency tips on their website, which will definitely help you take a chunk off your monthly electricity bill. 

Good luck!