Energy-saving technology, what energy-efficiency stickers say, useful tips
The desire to provide an increased level of comfort of their home, the desire to equip life and make homework easier and more enjoyable, led to a significant increase in the amount of electrical equipment used. Naturally, consumers have a question about the need for economical consumption of resources. Since nobody is going to give up the benefits of civilization, the only possible way out is to use more advanced electrical appliances, which, while maintaining all the requirements for them, are characterized by economical energy consumption.
Content:
Home Appliances
The main difference between the technology related to different classes of energy consumption is the use, or vice versa, non-use, in the process of its development of the latest technical solutions. For clarity, you can consider the operation of air conditioning devices. If to turn on a conventional air conditioner or split system, it is enough to increase the air temperature to a predetermined level, and to turn it off - lower it to the required level, then modern inverter-type air conditioners work according to a completely different principle.
A mode that is ineffective in terms of energy saving with constant on-off cycles is opposed by a continuously working system based on converting direct current to alternating current and changing its power depending on the ambient temperature. The savings are substantial, about 35%, an additional advantage is a smooth and accurate temperature adjustment.
More and more advanced and efficient solar energy elements are now appearing on the market. These are solar panels that allow the use of solar thermal energy for space heating, water heating, modern models of chargers can work from solar energy.
Even, at first glance, advanced computer technology is being improved, new models of system units are equipped with energy-saving microcircuits, monitors with automatic brightness control are popular, it happens with a change in the level of illumination of the room.
It’s not natural for people to think that standby devices that do not turn off from outlets consume tens of kilowatts of electricity due to the glow of control lights.
The use of modern solutions allows you to completely eliminate the consumption of electricity at the moment non-working household appliances, office equipment, telephones and televisions.
It will help to save from 10 to 30% of electricity timely cleaning of the dust bag in the vacuum cleaner, how much savings can be obtained by installing a refrigerator away from the gas stove and heating device. Electricity consumption and timely defrosting of the freezer, and loading the recommended weight of the laundry into the washing machine, also have an effect. Lighting costs can be reduced if you give preference to fluorescent lamps, they will also be positively influenced by the creation of interior interiors in bright colors.
Of course, we rarely think about such trifles, and the electricity that we pay from month to month just flies into the pipe.
Energy classes for household appliances
Back in 2011, a decision was made by the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1222 on the need to apply stickers to each manufactured appliance with the specified class of its effectiveness. There are 7 such classes, denoted by the Latin letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
The list of goods subject to classification includes almost all types of modern household appliances:
- refrigerators and freezers
- functional washing machines
- electric stoves, dishwashers, microwaves
- split systems and air conditioners
- monitors, printers and televisions
- heating appliances and incandescent lamps
To determine the class of the device, information on the number of kilowatts consumed by it is used. Classes are marked against a background of a certain color, the background color scheme changes from green to saturated red. The best technique is marked with the letter A, while the background should be green. Products marked with the signs A + and A ++, A +++ are even more energy efficient.
Devices that are lower in energy efficiency are marked with B. The subsequent Latin letters (C, D, etc.) indicate a decreasing energy efficiency indicator.
To calculate the energy efficiency of each type of electrical appliance, certain parameters are used that are specific to this group.
How to choose household appliances
If you consider yourself a person not prone to unjustified waste of money, then stop your choice on equipment marked with classes A, A +, A ++ and A +++ opposite the green arrow.
In order not to make a mistake when choosing expensive electrical equipment for a home or office, it will not be superfluous to figure out its technical parameters. They, as well as the operating modes of the devices, are used in the process of calculating energy efficiency.
In this case, various parameters can be used:
- for washers - this is energy consumption in one hour of operation with the maximum allowable load
- for ovens - volume and power are important points
- for air conditioners - the presence of a heating system, the presence of water cooling, the design of a split system
what energy pictures tell us about
Information sticker labels are located on the front of the instrument. They are pictures with alphabetic and digital information, for greater clarity, brightly colored fragments of the picture are also used.
For an attentive person reading such a label, it will not be a big problem to quickly choose the most economical option of household appliances.
In accordance with the decisions of the legislative bodies and the requirements of special GOST, labels are installed on all types of household appliances and industrial equipment. In developing the legislative documents, the experience of European countries in this area was used.
A serious approach of the state to this issue is due to significant factors:
- the opportunity to obtain significant resource savings on a national scale
- enabling citizens to reduce utility bills for electricity
- an opportunity to contribute to environmental conservation
- allow energy companies to reduce product manufacturing costs
In accordance with the law, the label must indicate characteristics important to consumers:
- trademark of a manufacturer of machinery
- alphanumeric model code
- the class of this model looks like an arrow with a white letter (A to G) on a black background
- power consumed by the unit and its operating features
- operating time
- what type of appliance is
- noise what level it emits at work, in dB
Other additional information is included in the labels for some devices, for bulbs - the type of cap, for refrigeration units - the amount of electricity consumed per year.
Today's market is mostly filled with equipment, the parameters of which correspond to class A, for this reason, in order to be able to highlight better products, European manufacturers use additional signs on the labels: A +, A ++, A +++.
choose a refrigerator
A feature of the marking of cooling equipment is the indication of an efficiency index, which is a percentage of the energy consumption indicators of devices of a similar type, but of different energy consumption classes.
When calculating the standard flow rate, the possibilities of different temperature conditions, the volume of the chambers, the presence of the auto-defrost function are taken into account. In accordance with the amendments introduced in 2010, the volume of working compartments must be indicated on the label.
Thus, from the label, the consumer can:
- find out who makes this model
- get acquainted with the alphanumeric code by which it is possible to accurately identify the manufacturer of this equipment
- find out the volume of energy consumption per year in kWh
- find out the volumes of storage rooms with a temperature above +6 C, they are not marked with asterisks
- find out the volume of cameras with a temperature below + 6C, i.e. in compartments marked with asterisks, if there are none, then there must be a -L mark, the space reserved for the asterisk must remain empty
- find out energy efficiency class by arrow
- make sure that the device is quiet (the noise level will be indicated in dB)
how to choose a dishwasher
For these kitchen helpers today there are two types of markings:
- used until 2010, taking into account the load and the amount of consumed kilowatts
- the second, more advanced, taking into account the standby mode and washing cycles, the number of which is 280
In addition, the label of a household dishwasher has:
- manufacturer and brand information
- model code in alphanumeric for manufacturer identification
- arrow with energy efficiency indicator, i.e. the class to which the model belongs, located opposite the arrow defining this class
- energy consumption per year in kWh
- amount of water consumed during the year in liters
- drying class
- the number of standard sets of dishes for the washing cycle
- unit noise, indicate in dB
Useful advice: to wash the dishes better, it is recommended to place the products larger closer to the edges, small ones in the middle, vertically mounted glasses and wine glasses will be washed better.
tV to the apartment
Since 2010, they began to mark TVs. It shows the percentage of electricity consumption by this model to the average for TVs of the same class.
Important for the consumer is information about the diagonal of the screen, the availability of receivers or a hard disk. Almost all devices are marked, the manufacturers of which occupy a confident position in the market of this sector.
A positive moment from the availability of marking is a more trusting attitude of consumers to this model of TVs, as well as the opportunity to make a purchase of a high-quality device, which allows to save energy consumption. In addition, increased demand has a stimulating effect on the production of energy-saving models and the development of new products.
Let's look at what information the sticker contains. It represents a yellowish rectangle measuring 120x60 mm.
On the upper left side there are colored stripes with an edge sharpened on the right side. Their colors vary from green to red in spectrum. The height of each strip is 3.8 m, and the distance between them is 0.75 mm.
Class A corresponds to a strip of green. Opposite the class corresponding to the class of this TV strip is a black arrow, on it is a white letter indicating the class of the TV.
The bottom of the label contains the following information:
- the power button is shown on the square, the presence of a checkmark on it means that the device can go into standby mode and the power consumed by it will not exceed 10 W per hour
- the following box shows the power consumed by the device
- a larger box contains information about how much energy this device consumes over a year of operation
- also shows the length of the diagonal of the screen, in cm and inches
Useful information: to save money, when you turn off the TV for more than an hour, use the special on-off button, not the remote control. Remote control units consume energy from 2 to 4 watts. The inverter operating with a minimum low load has the lowest efficiency, about 10-15%.
electric stove in the kitchen
The selection of an electric stove in the kitchen should be given special attention, at least from the considerations that it will consume much more energy than other electrical appliances, i.e. will cause a significant increase in electricity bills.
It is imperative to deal with the energy efficiency of this equipment, as even models that belong to the same class consume different amounts of current.
To indicate the class of electric stoves, it is customary to use the same symbols as for the rest of the technique and additionally symbols from A + to A ++++.
Energy class for stoves means energy consumption for bringing the temperature regime to a predetermined value.
Manufacturers of stoves achieve energy efficiency by optimizing the operating mode of heating elements, using better heat insulation, sealing ovens, and other advanced technical solutions.
An important point will be compliance with the rules for operating electric stoves, while the quality and material of the dishes used, their dimensions, the correspondence of the containers to the amount of the prepared dish will play a role.
If we analyze the issue in general terms, induction cookers are distinguished by a more economical consumption of electricity. The original design allows you to get warming due to the electromagnetic current arising in the coil. For a burner, the diameter of which is 16 cm, the maximum power in stoves of this type can reach 1.5 kW, but the consumer has the ability to control the temperature of the heating, and therefore the power consumption.
As a rule, to obtain the same result as on conventional electric stoves operating at full power, when using induction analogs, it is enough to use half the power.
A higher heating rate of induction models is achieved due to the absence of an intermediary and the absence of energy consumption for heating their glass-ceramic surface.
choose a washing machine
Marking of washing machines can occur in two types:
- the one that was adopted until 2010, when the calculation was carried out on a fully loaded drum, when operating in the cotton wash mode at +60 C. At the same time, the water temperature of + 15 C was taken as the initial one
- adopted in 2011, indicating the amount of annual energy consumption during operation, but taking into account the standby mode.
The calculation was made taking into account the following indicators:
- 42% of the annual number of washes will be performed at + 60 C, with a full load
- 29% - with incomplete loading of the drum and at the same + 60 C
- 29% at incomplete loading and temperature +40 C
Only 220 washes are planned for the year. For Class A machines, an annual energy consumption of 334 kW is indicated, an index of 100 means efficiency.
If we consider the label, then the inscriptions on it mean the following:
- trademark
- code made up of numbers and letters to identify the model manufacturer
- energy efficiency class indicated on the black arrow in letter form opposite the icon of the corresponding color
- electricity consumption, in kW per year
- the amount of liters of water consumed per year
- what class is the drying of washed laundry?
- rated load in kg
- what noise level does the working unit have in washing mode at full load and temperature + 60 C and spin mode
If several letters are indicated on the label, they respectively display the energy saving class of the washing and spin modes.
A little trick: such a simple procedure as pre-soaking dirty laundry will help to get big savings.
air conditioning in the house
To create a comfortable, according to current concepts, climatic conditions in the house is possible only by installing air conditioners. Today, in most cases, the question of whether it is rational to buy air conditioning does not arise.
But an important point is the determination of the required capacity and energy saving class. Those who wish to receive a device of sufficient power and at the same time not to overpay excess for consumed electricity, it is recommended to pay attention to modern innovative split systems and air conditioners: the level of electricity consumed by them is reduced to a minimum, but the power of the devices does not decrease.
A reasonable solution is to purchase class A or A + climate equipment, i.e. inverter-type models, the efficiency of which exceeds that of conventional devices almost twice. Naturally, this will make it possible to significantly reduce energy costs.
When creating a new generation of air conditioners, nano-technologies are used, the compressor in such devices runs on direct current, such a device allows to obtain increased efficiency. In order to improve the device, a special composite motor winding is also used. This minimizes the power loss caused by natural heating and significantly increases the life of the device.
To reduce friction losses, the new compressors are equipped with bearings manufactured by nano-technology, fluoroplastic layers, which are a modern achievement of powder metallurgy, are also used.
To improve heat transfer and productivity in the manufacture of heat exchangers of powerful air-conditioning devices, multilayer composite materials are used. Ultimately, these factors also work to reduce electricity consumption.
An important point is the competent handling of climate technology, in particular:
- use of sleep mode
- using a timer to adjust the operating mode
- application of the Economy mode, which allows you to automatically change modes depending on changes in environmental parameters.
In conclusion, we say that the main disadvantage of energy-saving household appliances is their higher cost, but when making a choice it should be borne in mind that one-time savings will ultimately result in systematic expenses for paying for a large consumption of electricity.
A vivid example for doubters: the payment for electricity consumed by a cheap refrigerator will be two and a half times higher than the payment for the energy required to operate similar refrigeration equipment, but of an energy-efficient class. But the final choice of the model of electrical equipment for the home, of course, remains with the buyer.
