What are you doing in your daily life to conserve electricity?

I am using candles (just kidding). The only thing i am doing is to turn off the lights every time i am leaving a room and use CFL (compact fluorescent lamps).

I'm not driving an electric vehicle and haven't replaced a broken HDTV in the family room. As you can guess, I'm not very popular here.

Switched off 2 of the fridges, and got rid of the hanbaiki-Im loving my bill already. Will start swiiming season this week, so wont be switching the air-cons on at all this year.

I want to turn the lights and airconditioning off in the train, but I don't know how to. I don't use an airconditioner at home and don't have the lights on in the daytime, but that is normal for me.

I don't have to do anything special to conserve electricity. Under normal circumstances I'm already 'stingy'...I remove all plugs when not in used, TV not switched on when I'm not really watching, wash clothes only every forthnight, charge my i-phone, i-pod while I'm a customer at hairdressers etc..shower at the gym!

What should i be doing and why should i be doing it? Maybe the more i pay to Kepco is better to the Japanese economy, so maybe i should use more electricity.

I was raised in a developing country by an illiterate mother who struggled to make ends meet every month, so saving water, electricity....saving on everything and living frugally was a way of life. I'm more than happy to help in the effort and have always done it by unplugging all appliances that are not in use, having candle light dinners (very cool), etc.. I'm considering making a little windmill and installing it to generate power and recharge a small battery to charge my mobile and ketai, but I charge them through my laptop anyway...

seesaw, charging your phone and ipod on someone else's meter might keep your bill down, but it doesn't actually conserve any electricity.

What do I do to save electricity? ...walk round the house after Mr cleo, turning off all the lights he seems to think have only an 'On' switch.....insulated the fish tanks so that the heaters don't need to work so hard (and put the thermostats on the lowest possible setting)....cook more on the gas ring and less in the electric oven or microwave....bathe by candlelight, it's very relaxing. Turn the telly off when there's nothing on worth watching (which is most of the time these days). Keep the freezer well stocked, and when Seikyo delivers once a week, pop the bag of dry ice and frozen coolants into the fridge.

cleo; why do women always dop this turning the lights off business, My mum used to do it and so does my wife. Maybe women have an energy conservation gene that men are missing.

stevepfc - I would ask, why do men always do this leaving lights on wherever they go business. Maybe the energy-wasting gene sits on the Y-chromosome, together with the leave-the-toilet-seat-up gene and the speed-limits-are-made-to-be-broken gene?

:-)

fish water wont need heating over summer, thatll save ya some too, & perhaps men feel like they ought to do business with those that do business with them? You know make the money go round , you scartch my back and Ill scratch yours kinda-thinking. Women can be so stingy. Having said that growing up in a caravan was very conservative, Id suggest that, if you really want world economics to dive.

I'm more conscious of turning off lights when not in use. I don't watch as much TV nor do I spend much time on the computer. Reading more is good!

I haven't touched a heater or A/C unit in months, either. I'm sure the A/C will come on in June, though, but probably at a higher temp than recent years.

Don't allow my wife to use the heated floor or heated toilet seats. She complains that it's too cold to sit down but I just deal with it. My motivation is concerving my own electricity bill.

illsayit: fish water does not need heating in summer, but it certainly need regulating of some kind, unless you want to serve them up for starters as soup. Generally: big fish tanks are a waste of power - an expensive form of interior decoration. Yes, they're beautiful, and yes the sound of water is calming - so get a nice big photo of some koi, and pay more attention when you're in the shower/doing the dishes.

I'm saving so much electricity! I hope it is all being stored up somewhere safe so we can use it in the summer!

The gunge from the tank filters is great fertilizer for the garden. That must be saving some kind of resource somewhere?

the reality is, the only benefit from saving electricity NOW besides giving TEPCO less of your money is in building good habits that will be useful in the summer should blackouts happen again. you are not actually saving any electricity

Domestic electricity use is not the issue. It is the commercial and industrial use that is the killer. Most 'normal' people were electricity wise before the quake just to keep their bills down.

I have only energy saving lightbulbs and only use the lights I absolutely need. I do the washing only when the machine is full and try to wear clothes longer. I cook as much as I can with gas. I don't have an air con and my TV is only on when I watch something which is about 30 minutes a day usually.

Changed all lights to CFL, hung Sudare outside windows to apartment(much cooler and way less bugs), unplugged unused appliances(they are on powerstrips here each plug has its own switch as well a surge protectors).

Using Microwave way less, using rice-cooker but will drop that soonish for now cook enough rice for meal than unplug.

Insulated fridge/freezer with newspaper and alu-foil, also added bottles of frozen salt-water to freezer(this will help delay food thawing during a blackout).

Nothing.

Well, My PC is on for shorter periods of time, and PSN has solved the issue of my PS3 being on for long hours.

....bathe by candlelight, it's very relaxing

I would KILL for the chance to have just one bath on my own with candles!!! OK, so it IS technically possible, but I mean without 3 faces and 6 fists banging on the door yelling MMMUUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!!!

I am switching off lights, switching off TV between 7 and 9.30 (had no idea how annoying that background noise is until now - going to make that a permanent change) watching TV by candlelight (after 10pm every night with Mr Miamum and it is very romantic actually!) and - best of all - not allowing MiL to come visit because that woman can waste for Japan in the olympics - drives me CRAZY when she runs all the aircons AND leaves the doors and windows open!!!

Absolutely nothing. Individuals don't need to do anything, it's the industrial and commercial users who need to cut back.

Well, I turn off all the lights that I don't use, and when I make rice, I just do it for exactly two portions, so after that I turn off the rice cooker, which I learned uses a lot of energy (I know I should use the cooker to make rice, but where I live the gas is so expensive!). I'm not using air conditioner yet (that's going to be very difficult on summer though!), and on the last cold days I wasn't even using the heater anymore, that was hard but I slept with 3 blankets lol.. Anyway, at least it's been good to me with the electricity bills now hahaha!! I know the saving at the individual level may be nothing, but I kinda like the idea of helping with at least some little details. To me, it's more the fact that we need to be aware of all the resources we are 'wasting', and try to do something to change that. It all starts with simple things as this, and we all can get benefits, so, to me it's a win-win.

No shower today, and I may not take one tomorrow..

-bought a small (10inch) LCD TV with internal rechargeable batteries that also receives 'chi-degi' 1-seg: runs on 10W (1/10-20th of conventional TVs) -am cooking by gas more instead of using the Healthio/ microwave -swapped out the incandescent bulbs in my bathrooms with LED ones (rest in the house are fluorescent) -bought a quiet fan, since I won't be using AC: 1/10-20th the power of AC -waiting in line for getting solar panels installed on my roof -will buy a laptop shortly, instead of using my large display PC -will work from home much of the time during summer - to reduce consumption needed for train transport

Just turn off all the "standby" gadgets. If you walk through your house at night, you might be surprised how many little red and green LEDs are on, and not needed at all. Kill 'em.

@Porter: Turn of the PC. That'll reduce the bill much more than the loo seat. How cruel letting the misses sit cold. You can stand. Plus, underfloor heating, gas surely?

Have always been a candle user.

Turning off the lights as soon as my wife leaves a room.

Replaced the regular batteries with rechargeables in my wife's double-headed black king kong ...

3 faces and 6 fists banging on the door yelling MMMUUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!!! ....... watching TV by candlelight (after 10pm every night with Mr Miamum and it is very romantic

Somebody's gonna end up with 4 faces and 8 fists banging on the bathroom door.....

;-)

I don't use the hairdryer - neither at home nor at the gym. I don't own an aircon.

If I could be in charge, I would close all the pachinko parlors and drink vending machines.

I liked the supermarkets in March when there were no announcements or stupid ads or music playing. It was so peaceful to shop. Now they are blasting again.

nothing, there is not a problem in Okinawa.

There are a couple of points people should remember.

First, PEAK capacity is the problem. Usually, power companies can generate enough electricity to meet demand fr0m 10 pm to about 8 am or so, but they cannot meet demand during other times. Therefore, trying to save electricity between 10p and 8a is not going to make much of a difference beyond... being green. ANd YES, consumers need to cut back. Consumers compete with businesses for that precious capacity between 8a and 10 p.

Second, heating and cooling take A LOT of electricity. If you want to heat water for tea, fill the kettle, leave it out for a few hours, and THEN heat it up. It uses a lot less electricity and takes less time to heat it up (100 W becomes 50 W). If you heat with electric carpet or electric blankets, that is ok (remember that night use is not a problem), but turn them off when the sun comes up (0.2 kWh). Microwave ovens typically use 500-700 W compared to a convection oven, which uses 1 kW or more, but microwave ovens do the cooking in 1-3 minutes, not 10-20 minutes, so they use about a tenth of the power. I try to bake and cook at night or early morning, and then reheat food for breakfast or maybe lunch. Doing laundry late at night is good too. Washer motors use a few hundred watts, usually.

Think of peak consumption and then total consumption. Use LED and CF bulbs for lights that will burn long and often. Use old incandescents for lights that get flipped on and off a few minutes each time. DONT use even a small incandescent for a night light, use an LED.

Finally, I guess, I would advise people to just do the math. Read the labels on your appliances. A slow cooker or crock pot MIGHT be better than a frying pan. The former might use 100 W for 8 hours, but the latter might use 1 kW for one hour (and remember that you want to keep PEAK usage down anyway). You might find that all the energy you are saving by scurrying around doing this or that is a fifth of what you would save by just getting a new refrigerator (if you buy on credit, the electricity savings will pay your borrowing costs). A hot toilet seat 24 hours a day is quite probably using more energy than all the lights in your apt.

"Doing the math" is what I have done for a long time, but in the last two months, I have been able to cut usage by about 30%.

YongYang might be mistaken. Assuming that you are using a laptop and a hot seat for 24 hours a day, that might be 60 W for the computer and 20 W for the hot seat, so the PC uses THREE TIMES AS MUCH!

But my wife made this mistake: the toilet seat is on ALL DAY, definitely. The PC might be used 6 hours a day, with sleep the rest of the time. The sleep phase power consumption might be 5 W or less, so the PC might actually use less power overall. In our case, my wife kept a heater in the bathroom that I think cost us 600-1000 yen during December. 24 hour a day heating is just stupid. This is exactly why a good refrigerator is money in the bank.

If it is the right kind of laptop, just keep it on the toilet seat and close the lid. It will keep things plenty warm. Ha.

If it is not a laptop, all bets are off. Old monitors use 60-100 W or more all by themselves, and the fans, hard drives, etc of desktop machines all need power too. Sleep mode with the monitor turned off is not bad, but it still does not get you to zero power consumption.

don't watch TV but that was never a problem/issue. Unplug what's not in use. Use hairdryer less. As usual, turn off unnecessary lights.

I don't have airco at home and use compact fluorescent lamps.