5 things to keep your utility (electricity, water & gas) bills under control in your new flat

Purchasing a flat is one of biggest decisions one can make. However, once you buy a home, especially, your first home, you need to be aware of a few things. The down payment for a home usually makes a dent in your past savings while the regular equated monthly installments (EMI) creates a significant outflow from your regular income for a period of 10-15 years. In such a scenario, all family members must work towards ensuring that regular costs such as electricity, water and cooking gas bills are minimized. Often, we observe that careless use of electricity, water and gas adds to the monthly expense burdens of a family.

Many of us as first-time home buyers come from settlements where all the above were either part of the rent or a free connection or a lumpsum fixed amount would be paid on a monthly basis. To avoid surprises and ensure that you and your family live a happy life and within budgets, you should practice these 5 things:

Timer air-conditioners at 24 degree C: Air-conditioning cost form the maximum part of your electricity bills as they are energy guzzlers. Ensure that you have timer clocks that ensure the AC switches off automatically after a certain amount of time. Often, we go to sleep in AC rooms and the machine is still on when we wake up in the morning; although, 4 hours of cooling is enough to keep us comfortable through our sleep. Maintain the temperature at an optimum of 24 degree C and don’t lower it if you or your children have walked in from outside.

It is recommended that one AC be installed in the master bedroom and not in every room. Even if they are installed, ensure that these are used sparingly, only as and when required. It has been often observed that in homes once an AC is switched on, it isn’t switched off even after cooling.

Have a common TV room or watch TV together: Television is a form of entertainment for the entire family and ideally, it is recommended that every home has a single TV. Having multiple TV sets in each room not only increases costs like electricity and subscription charges but results in multiple use of ACs and fans. Also, with the proliferation of the Internet, the younger generation can watch their preferred shows on tablets, mobiles or their PCs. So having more than one TV is a waste of investment.

Invest is a good TV system with a large screen and maybe add it with a home theatre or sound system – this will ensure that no family member has a choice of watching TV anywhere else. Your drawing room is the best option for being a TV room in a compact one- or two-bedroom flat. The entire family can come together to watch sports or soaps and you may even occasionally invite your friends and neigbours. Not only would you get to spend quality family time together, but also this bonding results in reduced electricity bills and significant savings in the long run.

Switch off and Turn off as a habit: Switching off fans, lights or turning off the water taps when not required can help reduce your utility bills. Younger family members like children often forget to switch off their gadgets, fans, lights and ACs when they leave the room, often with the thought that they will have to switch them on again when they want to use them again. There must be strict rules and firm habits in place to ensure that when appliances are not in use, even for a minute, everything must be turned off. Ensure that you put reminders in place or initially an elder can keep an eye on such things so that it becomes a habit by default for every member of the house. Similarly, water taps dripping or a leaking flush can increase water usage for the entire society, and hence, it should be kept under strict watch.

Often we don’t switch off the original power switch for appliances. Thus, a TV switched off with a remote will still show a red light which means that it will consume power even when it is not being viewed. Insist on every family member to switch off gadgets from the main power source and not only using the remote.

Inculcate good battery charging habits: In a world driven by mobility, every family member has multiple gadgets like cell phones, laptops, tablets, music systems, watches, and so on that need regular battery charging. All of us must be aware of how we charge our gadgets when we are asleep and take it off the charger once we wake up in the morning. Often we lose or are unable to locate the original charging wire that came with the equipment and use other wires for charging; this increases energy consumption. This is an expensive bad habit as it not only increases power bills but in the long term, damages the costly equipment.

As a practice, we should never over-charge our gadgets like mobiles or laptops. It reduces the battery life of the gadget and in extreme cases, may damage the gadget due to excessive heat. Keeping gadgets on charge while we are asleep is not a safe practice. A mobile or a similar gadget usually takes a maximum of 2-3 hours to re-charge and ideally should never be charged fully, but almost full (95-99%). Hence, we should ensure that we put our gadgets on charging as soon as we come home and take it off before we go to sleep. Similarly, once we wake up, we should put them on charging and while leaving home, they will be fully charged. With each member of the house having a minimum of 2-3 mobiles, 1 PC and maybe 1 tablet or heath watch, the amount of energy we can save by practicing the above good habits is for us to calculate.

Focus on Cooking and Washing as standalone jobs: Unlike our previous houses, today compact homes like your flat has everything close by. Often housewives and even maids dash in and out of the kitchen doing multiple tasks. A housewife maybe cooking and also changing nappies for her newborn in her bedroom, an elderly lady maybe peeking out of the kitchen for watching her favourite serial alongside preparing tea and a maid maybe filling water or putting clothes in the washing machine while cooking. Do these examples sound similar? Keeping the gas burner on or water tap running while multi-tasking is not a good habit.

The above acts unknowingly increases energy use with the gas maybe in slow-cooking mode which results in waste of energy or often last moment spillage. Similarly, maids let water overflow in the bathroom while doing other work. Cooking and washing should be encouraged as standalone jobs and such work should be completed and then take up other work outside the kitchen. This ensures optimal use of cooking gas and water savings. On a lighter note, a hurriedly cooked meal is not good for health and we should give time and devotion to such noble acts.

The above 5 things may look simple and at times repetitive as everybody knows about it. But if we all give it a serious thought and each family member practices it, it will lead to energy conservation and financial savings for your family.