Making small changes at home could save energy and water

Did you know that if every Dubai resident set his or her home air-conditioning to 24 degrees Celsius, we could save Dh81 million per year in electricity generation costs that’s enough to power 11,000 homes for a year?

This small step to change one’s decisions at home and in the office can also save approximately 160,000 tonnes of emissions, according to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa)’s 2014 figures. That is the combined year-long emissions of 33,684 passenger vehicles saved from being emitted into the atmosphere.

Consciously saving energy, especially during the peak hours of 12pm to 6pm during summer, when demand for electricity is highest during the day, is part of Dewa’s annual Peak Load campaign.

Wasting energy during peak hours requires Dewa to invest heavily to meet this growing demand. This means Dewa will have to burn more fuel to produce electricity to meet such high demand rates.

“Costly fuel is used during the peak period for meeting high peak load. The additional fuel cost depends upon the level and duration of peak demand increase,” Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa, told Gulf News.

“During the summer season of 2014, the peak period extended from 12pm to 6pm with a peak load reaching about 7.2 gigawatts compared to 6.8GW peak load registered during summer of 2013, with around 6 per cent increase in the peak load,” he added.

Through the campaign, Dewa encourages residents to put off energy-intensive activities such as washing and ironing clothes, washing dishes using a dishwasher, among others, to off-peak hours to avoid wasting energy. This will not only be good for the environment and for Dewa’s operation costs but will also help your wallet, however, by “greening your household”.

The Vedvyas household saves a reasonable amount of energy for their three-bedroom villa monthly compared to another family’s energy consumption in a similar-sized home, although exact figures could not be shared.

The family has made many changes in their house to ensure that their energy and water consumption, especially during summer, is kept to a minimum.

“Our family is not at home during the peak hours so that in itself saves energy. Our housemaid washes the clothes only in the morning,” Swati Vedvyas, owner of an advertising agency.

“We replaced all our light bulbs with energy-efficient lighting to cut down on consumption. We make sure lights are switched off during peak hours. We have also replaced our appliances with the latest model of energy-efficient appliances. We should try to conserve energy whether it reflects in the bill or not,” she added.

One point, though, which Vedvyas could include in the changes they have made is the ironing of clothes. The housemaid irons their clothes at 4pm. She said that to ensure that they fully observe the Peak Load campaign to help Mother Earth, they would put off the ironing schedule until evening.

Umer Farooq, a logistics officer living in The Gardens, said they consciously save energy as responsible residents.

“We’re very good residents,” Farooq said, adding he knows what it means to be in lack that is why he makes it a point not to waste resources.

“My main motivation for energy conservation is my country. Back home, there is very little water and we have no electricity for 18 hours. So I don’t want to waste the resources we have right now.”

Like the Vedvyas household, washing clothes is done early in the morning in Farooq’s home. Their AC is set to either 25C or 26C whenever possible. Their lights are switched off in the afternoon as the house is bright enough with sunlight.

Air-conditioning represents 60 per cent of the load on electrical peak times, according to Dewa calculations. Reducing use of these appliances will positively reflect on a household’s electricity bill.

Salma Ali, a creative designer who lives in a four-bedroom apartment, said they used to set their AC to 24C but changed it to 21C only recently during when the hottest days of the month.

“We try our best to save energy during the daytime in many ways. If we can, we stay in one room, we switch off unnecessary lights, and use only energy-saving bulbs,” Ali said.

Ali suggested that changes in the house design could help them save energy more. She said there should be more controls for the centralised AC per room in the house so that not all rooms are air-conditioned all at once even if there are no occupants in some rooms.