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<< continued from tips to conserve energy & save money

Energy can be conserved in day-to-day life by making small and simple changes in the way we use devices. Here are a few tips that can help achieve results, without compromising on your lifestyle.

Heating and cooling systems

1. Use a ceiling fan or table fan rather than an air-conditioner wherever possible since it costs you close to 30 paisa an hour to operate against Rs. 10 for an airconditioner.
2. Set the temperature of the air-conditioner to 25 degrees centigrade since 3-5 % of energy is consumed to reduce the temperature by one degree.
3. Use the timer facility of air-conditioner and leave the unit off for some time since a good air-conditioner shall require only half an hour to dehumidify and the cool the room.
4. Clean the filter of the air-conditioner regularly to reduce consumption of energy.
5. If the air conditioner is old then cost of replacing the unit might work out cheaper than repairing and maintaining the old unit.
6. While buying new electrical equipment, opt for the highest star rated energy saving device.
7. Reduce the temperature setting of water heaters from 60 degrees centigrade to 50 degrees. You can save 15-20% of energy required to heat the water at high temperature.
8. Insulate the pipes of water heaters to minimize the loss of heat especially when the pipe is running through unheated areas.
9. As a long-term solution and future investment use solar water heating systems rather than conventional water heaters.

Cooking systems

1. Refrigerators should be placed away from sources of heat, including direct sunlight, radiators, and appliances such as the oven and cooking range.
2. Refrigerator motors and compressors generate heat. Hence allow enough space for continuous airflow in and around refrigerator to make it more efficient.
3. Do not stack the refrigerator full; keep some free area inside for air circulation.
4. Allow hot and warm food to cool down before putting it in refrigerator. Also cover food items.
5. Use the microwave oven, which consumes close to 50% less energy as compared to a regular oven, especially if the quantity of food is less.

At a time when recession and economic downturn is affecting every aspect of life we need to treat this as an opportunity to realign ourselves and rethink what best we can do to conserve more resources. Energy is also such a tangible resource, in short supply; every unit saved can be helpful to light villages in and around our cities and reduce power outages.

All of us should take at least a few small steps to conserve energy, which will help us, and the nation, in the long run. Energy can be conserved in day-to-day life by making small and simple changes in the way we use devices. Here are a few tips that can help achieve results, without compromising on your lifestyle…

Lighting Systems

1. The elementary way of conserving energy is through light switches. Turn off lights when not required.
2. Maximise the use of automatic devices that help in saving energy. These include infrared sensors, motion sensors, automatic timers, dimmers or solar cells wherever applicable to switch off lighting when not required.
3. Use appropriate light fittings as close to the place that requires lighting e.g. a reading lamp focuses light on the desk and is hence the best option, as compared to illuminating the entire room which might require higher wattage of lighting.
4. Clean light bulbs and tubes for dust accumulation, since dirty lamps can absorb up to 50% of the light.
5. Replace your inefficient incandescent lamp with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) which use up to 75% less energy than conventional light bulbs.
6. Unplug all the electrical devices when not in use since it keeps drawing residual current.
7. Make a futuristic investment in solar lighting systems, which do not have recurring cost of energy consumption.

Computers

1. Turn off office equipment when not in use. If your computer must be left on then at least switch off the monitor since it consumes almost half of the energy required by the system.
2. Set computers, monitors, copiers in sleep mode when not in use which can help cut your energy consumption by almost 40%.
3. Battery chargers such as for those equipment like the laptop, cell phone and digital cameras draw power whenever they are plugged in also they are quite inefficient devices. Hence pull off the plug when not in use and save the energy.

More tips to conserve energy in your own home >>

In order to realize the grand dream of affordable housing and massive infrastructure growth, the cost of the most important ingradient - construction material - must come down substantially. (Ref: article published in the Times of India)

In the last few months, the government has been pressing for affordable housing. However in the middle of election and economic slowdown, the measures have been nothing but half-hearted. Although the government, in its effort to arrest increase in the prices of construction material, announced cuts in service and excise taxes on cement prices, they still continue to remain high. Steel prices too are fluctuating. However, if the dream of affordable housing has to be realized, such frequent fluctuations in the prices of cement & steel must be controlled. In fact, the government should ensure stringent and effective measures to keep the prices at a sustained level to make the dream a reality.

According to some developers, the desperate need for infrastructure development has increased the demand of the construction material and its impact is felt on the housing projects as well. While in metros like Mumbai land prices (which have always been at a premium) contribute substantially towards the cost of the project, the cost of construction too constitutes a substantial fraction of the total cost. The housing sector consumes 55% of cement, while the infrastructure sector eats up 35%, and the balance 10% goes into other cement products. The ongoing price hikes of cement have hit the construction industry hard.

Now with the housing industry experiencing a slowdown, the capacity utilisation of cement plants, which has gone down to 86% in 2008-2009 is set to go down further during Q1 of this year due to the likely addition of 28.55 million tonne capacity. Cement firms are producing blended cement by adding 25% of fly ash to Portland cement. This actually reduces the production cost, which is NOT passed on to the consumers.

Steps needed to control price increase

With the increasing trend of mass housing, builders are coming up with newer technologies to reduce costs. The new projects have redefined the housing industry. The designs, use of vitrified tiles, polymer paints, paved areas, luxury amenities have upgraded the final output of the products contributing to the increase in costs. Also a few years ago, there were only G+4 or G+7 FSI, but now with high rises, costly technology is required, resulting in the steep increase in prices. Supplementary forces like labour and transport add up to the cost. But introduction of new technologies, which have reduced labour cost, is possible only in case of huge housing projects. For a builder investing in such technology is expensive.

Though government is laying down certain policies it should try to regularise one door clearance of documents to avoid the builders running from pillar to post to get their documents in place in time. To encourage the construction industry, VAT on cement and RMC (Ready Mix Concrete) should be brought down to four per cent. Most important, the government, the builders and manufacturers need to work closely.  To help reducing prices effectively and to encourage fair pricing, the government needs to appoint a more powerful regulatory body, completely ban the export of cement, remove the countervailing tax completely to make import easy so that domestic prices remain under control and bestow more power to the MRTP commission in order to be able to take strict action against the offenders and bring in more transparency in working of these systems.

What developers are doing to arrest spiralling prices?

According to a builder, the major factors for the increase in cost of construction are the raw materials, cost of TDR (transfer of development rights), increasing interest rates, government delay in clearances of various projects. In order to control cost, some developers have already started making efforts to procure raw materials in time, minimize wastage, have better information system, better negotiation for pricing of raw materials and use of ERP software to keep costs in control. Developers need to maintain a systematic construction schedule, stock raw materials, arrange work force and other daily requirements to minimise expenditure.