Save ELECTRICITY, whenever you can !!!

Before you commence reading this post, I would suggest a small exercise which would get you in the same mood as I am while writing this post. Switch off the fan/AC of the room you are sitting in while reading this post. Turn off the lights. If you are on your laptop and your battery is fucked up like mine, then switch off the power supply and try reading the post, before your battery drains out. If you are on a desktop, switch off the power supply and start listening to those irritating UPS sounds. How does it feel ? I bet its not a serene feeling. If you are indeed following this activity, then for the next few moments you would be experiencing the life me and many many others have been living in summers. Now, lets get started with the post.

I reside in Ghaziabad and like everyone else would admit that I unconditionally love my city. So, all those who ask me why don’t I stay much in hostel, this is certainly one of the reasons that I like spending time here. Summers had always been more enjoyable at my place until 2 years back  in 2009 when we started to face acute power shortages. I still very well remember those summers, I was supposed to complete a project in 20 days and we used to get electricity only for 8-10 hours daily. I used to sit in front of my laptop, with fan and lights turned off to save Inverter power . Didn’t use to listen to music to save my laptop’s battery. That was certainly one of the worst times I had faced in life. Every year I feel that the conditions would improve, but the conditions have only worsened since then. Now the power-cuts are much longer, more erratic and the appliances would hardly work with the voltage they supply.

Anyways, the purpose of this post is not to discuss my personal woes, I still believe we are the better-offs, we have got inverters/generators as our saviour. The conditions are more wretched for the lower classes of society, especially the lower-middle class and the lower class who could not afford alternate sources of power (And what about the people below poverty line? Ha...they hardly have homes to live, but let’s not get into poverty here). Electricity I believe have become one of the basic necessities of life, sadly there are large sections of the society who are still deprived of this facility. As SunnyD would have said here, “Power Cuts pe Power Cuts, Power Cuts pe Power Cuts, yahee toh miltee aaye hai humein, nahin millee toh 1 ghante ki bhi bijlee” or SRK would have said, “ek ghante ki bijlee ki keemat, tum kya jaano babujee” (In case you didn’t understand the context of the dialogues, please skip).

Anyways, these experiences have made me understand that one does not understand the importance of things one possess (“Ghar ki murgee daal barabar”- couldn’t recall the appropriate english version). Take it or not, all of us end up wasting a lot of electricity, I myself never realized its importance. But after my recent experiences, I have become cautious regarding my usage of electricity.

In case you are still wondering, why the heck have I written this post, so let me reveal that the purpose of this post is to discuss some measures we could take in our day-to-day life to save electricity. I bet we all are well-aware of them, but somehow they always shift beyond our conscious mind. So, here they goes:

• Turn off fans and lights or any other electric appliances when not in use- Some people wonder, whoa, that’s so basic, who leaves them switched on. But is this really true??? Believe me, I find a lot of fans/lights switched on in classes and hostel rooms. Try to develop the habit of turning them off before leaving. Also, if you find them switched in any classes, please make some efforts to switch them off.
• Switch off appliances in your home when not in use- I wonder if we could be omnipresent and could use all the appliances in all the rooms at once, atleast the way I have found people using appliances in their homes, it makes me feel that they believe in omnipresence. In many of my relatives’ and friends’ places, I was surprised to see that they keep fans, lights, TV in all their rooms switched on. When I confronted them and asked why, they replied, that they never noticed. That’s why I made an explicit point here, instead of merging it with the first point, so that you dont’ leave them unnnoticed.
• Turn off your computer monitor when not in use- Many a times, we use our computers just to listen songs or sometimes we leave leave our workplace when the computers are executing some task. In such situations, you should consider switching off your monitors.
• Use Air-conditioners optimally- We should realize that ACs should be used for the purpose of cooling, not for freezing. One of the studies I read mentioned that 23-24 degrees is the optimal temperature for Indian urban homes.
• Use fluorescent lamps wherever possible- Try using fluorescent lamps instead of bulbs whenever you can. I don’t have the exact statistics, but they save a lot of power in comparison with their yellowish-counterparts.
• Be wise in following the above advice- I have just made some suggestions, but you need to be WISE while following them. For example, if you are leaving your room for a minute or less, then switching off appliances and switching them on would consume more energy, then keeping them switched on for these very short spans.
• Spread the word- Share this knowledge with your friends, family and relatives. Try to explain them them various ways to save power. WARNING- Some of them might start considering you paranoid but atleast a few would understand. Also, if you know of other ways to save power, do share them in the comments.

PS- For those who did follow the activity I mentioned in the beginning, they must have realized the agony. And as I continue to work in similar situations, you could turn on your fan/light/AC/power-plugs :)