Do you think that going green in your energy saving practices is important? If so, you’re not alone – according to the 2017 Lamudi Market Report, 64% of Sri Lankan respondents considered sustainable features to be either “important” or “very important” in their property hunt.

Real estate developers know this – based on the Lamudi 2016 White Paper, 79% of real estate agents surveyed in Sri Lanka believed that interest in green buildings increased between 2014 and 2015. For this reason, some developments have been trying to meet this new demand for the reduction of their carbon footprint. For example, Clear Point Residencies

Located in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is Sri Lanka’s tallest vertical garden designed with energy efficient offering. In it, each apartment has its own garden terrace, built-in automatic drip irrigation system, which also delivers nutrients to the vegetation. The development also has solar panels to provide energy for lighting, elevators and the recycling systems such as the grey water system.

But what if you’re not looking for a new apartment in one of these green buildings? Then the tips below will show you energy-saving features and practices that you can implement yourself.

 

4 Effective energy-saving features to implement when designing your house

To begin with, you can save a huge part of your energy consumption by paying attention to the design of your house and adding the features listed below.

Solar Ovens

Solar Ovens work by trapping sunlight to heat food. This is advantageous especially if you cannot afford to power your entire house but still want to power at least a part of it. With solar ovens, you can warm your food even during a power outage. So even in case of a natural disaster, you won’t have to worry about eating unheated food!

Solar Water Heating

Solar Water Heating is the process of heating your water with the help of solar panels. Solar water heaters use the sun to heat your water, which makes it much cheaper than heating water with electricity.

Solar Air Conditioning

Solar Air Conditioning uses the same principles of the Solar Water Heater, but uses that hot water in an air conditioning system. You can also use the hot water produced for air conditioning for many other applications in your house.

High Vertical Windows

While creating an illusion of a bigger space, high vertical windows are also designed to provide maximum light and air into your house. You can further enhance their effect, if you paint your interior with bright colors.

 

3 Effective practices to save energy in your house today

The previously mentioned features are very helpful, if you want to consume energy more effectively, however, it may not be appropriate if you’re not looking to redesign your house. For that reason, here are some further steps that will help you minimize your monthly utility bills.

Rooftop Solar Panels

Installing solar roof panels is one of the most popular ways to effectively power your house in Sri Lanka.

In fact, due to increasing energy consumption by country’s average household and the benefits solar panels offer, Sri Lanka has now taken steps to encourage their installation by extending the loan scheme for small solar power plants on residential and commercial buildings.

In terms of results, based on the latitude and the orientation of the panels, you could generate 10 or more watts per square foot.

However, you need to be aware that solar panels only work when the sun is up. So if you want to power your home during the night-time, you might have to invest into battery products that are able to store the electricity that you didn’t use during the day.

Investing in CFLs, fluorescent lamps or LED

A 2013 research conducted by the students of the Department of Physics of the University of Kelaniya, shows that around 20 percent of the electricity bill is spent on lighting.

To prevent energy wastage in this area, make sure to invest in CFLs, fluorescent lamps or LED. Compared to traditional lighting, these have shown to save at least 80% more of your electricity.

When selecting the bulbs for your houses remember that CFLs and tube lights generate five times electricity saving than traditional lighting. Also, you might have to consider that even though LED bulbs are costlier than CFL, the life span of the former is higher.

Refrigerator consuming less Wattage

The mentioned research also indicates that actually 35-40% or the highest share of our electricity bill is spent on powering the refrigerator.

So next time you buy a refrigerator, think about purchasing one that comes with energy-efficient compressors and cooling methods that consumes less wattage.

The size and the storage capacity of your refrigerator should depend on the number of members in your family. Another thing to bear in mind is that the amount of energy consumed by your fridge increases with the number of times you open it. While refrigerators with the automatic defrosting facility consume high amounts of energy, refrigerators that include the inverter technology consume about 45% less electricity than conventional refrigerators.

lamudi-image