How to measure your appliances and devices power consumption using a plug-in power meter
Our objective is to decrease our electricity consumption and save money on our electricity bills.
The first step we need to take is to measure how much electricity we are consuming and then work towards finding ways to reducing our electricity consumption.
All of our house appliances and devices like the wash machine, the dishwasher, the TV or the printer are plugged to a wall socket. With a power consumption meter we can determine how much energy our appliance or devices is using and, more importantly, we can measure the power consumption over a period of time.
Learn how to use a power consumption plug in power meter
Following the principle that one image is worth one thousand words, we have made a video where we show how to use a plug-in power meter and how it can be used to measure our appliances and devices power consumption.
We are working towards making the videos available in different languages so, if English is not your main language, have a look to our **YouTube channel** for other language options. Do not forget to ENABLE the CAPTIONS. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgS-zXti7dq7j_oOwfdFjQ
https://youtu.be/yVNB8RDhjpM
As explained on the video, we did measure the power consumption of our dishwasher cycles and that did allow us to know that we were not using the most efficient cycle. Since, we have got used to always use the Eco cycle and even though it takes over three hours to complete we have just adjusted our routines and now we run the dishwasher overnight.
In our opinion, a plug-in power meter is a cheap an easy to use device which make us become more aware of our daily electricity usage and, as we have proved already, to save money it may just be matter of being more aware of how our habits and lifestyle can contribute towards reducing our energy and water usage.
We hope you have found the information useful.
Do you want to know more? Visit our website and let's us guide you through some other very useful home energy saving knowledge and information. https://effiworkx.com/
How to reduce bathroom water consumption and save money
Have you ever wondered how much water do you use during your daily bathroom activities?
It may actually come to a surprise to realize the **high amount of water that we use daily for bathing and showering** and, even if our water bill may not be that high, it is worth to try to cut the amount of water we waste.
**We call it to wasted water because we may have the same results with less water usage**. Let us show you what we are talking about.
Measuring bathroom water consumption
First we need to know how much water we are using and then we can decide if we are wasting water and where we can start saving water.
For measuring the tap and shower water usage we have used a one liter bucket and we have timed how long does it takes to get it filled to the one liter mark.
For measuring the toilet flushing water usage, we have just taken **water meter readings** before and after flushing. We knew that we have a dual flush toilet and that the standard is three liters for liquid waste and six liters for solid waste. The water meter reading has just confirmed that the toilet water tank capacity is not that well setup. https://youtu.be/1KZEbR_tGAk
This are the results:
**It is shocking to realize how much water it is being used in just a few second, specially while showering.**
Know that we know how much water we are using per second, the next steps we took were to measure the time: how long the daily showers take, how many liters we were using for filling up the bath tube for the children and to estimate for how long we are using the sink every day.
We have used all that data to estimate how much water we use during year and then calculate the total cost at a prize of 2,2 euro per cubic meter (cubic meter = 1000 liters) for our family of two adults and two small children.
Now that we have estimated how much water and money we are spending and where we are spending it, we know that **the water fixtures are using a considerable amount of water in just a few seconds** so we started checking if it was possible to (reasonably) reduce the water flow through a cost effective solution.
Reduce shower water wastage by installing a water flow reduction valve
After some research, we decided that an easy and economic way of reducing the shower head water flow is to install a adjustable water flow valve.
With this valve we have managed to **reduce the shower water flow from 1 liter every 5,5 seconds to 1 liter every 8,5 second**s without actually noticing any difference while getting showers.
The advantage of the valve is that it is manually adjustable so if some day we need to increase the water flow rate, we can do it without any effort. Or, if our small children are just playing with water while enjoying their shower, we can decrease the water flow up to 1 liter every 10 seconds without them noticing any difference.
Additionally, we valve is discrete and unless you know it is there it is barely noticeable. For more details and specifications, this is the link to the valve sold in Amazon. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01FQO8UHE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1638&creative=6742&creativeASIN=B01FQO8UHE&linkCode=as2&tag=effiworkx-21&linkId=a018f0ffd55666c2e590193624d3a15d#ace-6792725779
https://youtu.be/6KfPkge-krs
Reduce sink water wastage by reducing the water flow
Another solution that just popped up by having a closer look was that we could adjust the sink water flow rate by just adjusting the hot and cold water flow valves.
This way, we have adjusted the flow rate from 1 liter every 5 second to 1 liter every 9 second and even though the flow reduction is noticeable, the truth is that the water flow was far to much and we were just wasting too much water.
1 liter of water every 9 seconds for cleaning hands, face or washing the teeth it is more than enough. bit of awareness.
Reduce water consumption by installing a water saving tap aerator
Old faucet models run on average of around 15 liters of water per minute while a standard aerator can **reduce the water usage to as little as 6 litters per minute**. Water saving tap aerators can reduce the water consumption even further and due to their **low cost and easy installation** are most definitely a water saving method to have in consideration.
We have installed a water saving tap aerator and the results speak by themselves.
Have a look to the video below for more information. We are working towards making the videos available in different languages so, if English is not your main language, have a look to our **YouTube channel** for other language options https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgS-zXti7dq7j_oOwfdFjQ
https://youtu.be/fRujERUJydU
Dual flushing toilets
The toilet flushing didn’t present any water saving opportunity. Our house has a toilet with dual flushing system which is one of the most efficient solutions on the market.
**Some very old toilet use considerable amounts of water, up to 15 liters per flush** . If this is your case and you are thinking about investing or not into a new toilet flushing system, just take some readings, crunch some numbers and the result may help into deciding if the saving are worth the investment.
We hope you have found the information useful.
Do you want to know more? Visit our website and let's us guide through other water saving opportunities. https://effiworkx.com/
Drinking water quality test - Stop using bottled water and save money
For at least four years in our house **we have been drinking bottled water** and recently we have learnt that **most probably we have wasted hundreds of euro**.
We used to live in a country were the water quality was not be best. We knew that the city drinking water pipes used to bring water to the houses was very old and the government was using **chloride to keep the water drinking within acceptable quality**. Even with that, there was the case that an entire city had to stop using tap water for drinking and for weeks and the citizens had to purchase bottled water for drinking.
This is the reason why we started buying bottled water and we believe it was a good decision because health comes first.
Years ago we moved to another country and we kept buying bottled water for daily use but some months ago we decided to challenge this decision and our motivations.
**Is our tap water really that bad, or, does the tap water contains any harmful substances that deem necessary from us to purchase bottled water?** **After all, we were spending many hundreds or euro every year buying bottled water.**
Drinking water test kit
We did look around for a test kit or device to test our tap water and we came across a test kit that seemed quite complete. The ****water safe test kit**** measures the levels of Bacteria, Lead, Pesticides, Copper, Iron, Nitrates, Nitrites, pH, Hardness and Chlorine. https://watersafetestkits.com/
This test kit comes with quite clear instructions and we were able to perform most of the tests within one hour. The only exception was the bacteria levels test which takes 48 hours to shown a result. This is because of the time required to grow the bacteria and display the bacteria level.
And… **all the test showed that our tap water is absolutely perfect to drink**. The tests show the results in particles per million (PPM) and all our test were within the lowest levels of particles.
Those were very positive news, that means that **we can drink our tap water without any problem**. Still, that means that over the years we had spent many hundreds of euro buying bottled water for nothing.
Do you want to know more? Have a look to our website. https://effiworkx.com/
Install a water saving tap aerator, reduce your water consumption and save money
Most of us understand the importance of saving water so we do our best to close the water taps while not in use and teach our children that water is very valuable and must not be wasted.
Still, as a parent, I have came to realize that very **small children (and some adults) may not have yet enough awareness and we need to take a more active role into making sure that water is not being wasted.**
Because of the strong water pressure at home, our bathroom tap was using much more water that necessary for just simply cleaning the hands or brushing the teeth. We were wasting water and money!
Water saver tap aerator: Cheap, easy to install, big savings
I came across a **water saving tap aerator** that claimed to use only one liter of water every 3,8 seconds and had very good reviews so I decided to give it a try. https://www.neoperl.net/de/start.html
If you also decide to install a water saving tap aerator, my advise is to **look for aerators that specifically describe the water usage** (for example, one liter of water every 5 second) and to avoid those which make claims like ‘save up to 30%’.
We recently purchased a water saving shower head that claimed to save up to 30% of water. Well, it is actually saving us 1% of water so that means that we have wasted 30 euro that we could had used to buy something else
In any case, **the water saver tap aerator has been a great investment: Low cost, easy installation and big water and money savings.**
**A saving of 25 euro a year is actually a very good result because the cost of purchasing a tap aerator is quite low.**
Still, **the amount of water saved is astonishing** which really makes it a worthy investment for any family.
On the video below we are walking you over the whole process of installing a tap aerator, which is quite a simple process that anyone can do.
We are working towards making the videos available in different languages so, if English is not your main language, have a look to our **YouTube channel** for other language options. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgS-zXti7dq7j_oOwfdFjQ
https://youtu.be/fRujERUJydU
Bonus - Water consumption calculator
Do you want to know how much water you are using while washing your hand, your teeth, saving,... Use this water consumption calculator. https://effiworkx.com/calculators/water-calculators/
With this calculator you can easily figure out how much water and money you will be saving by installing a water saver tap aerator.
If you would like to learn about other ways to save water, visit us our Home Efficiency website. https://effiworkx.com/
Learn how to read a water meter
Every time that we use water at home, the amount of water being consumed is being accounted by the water meter and the reading on the water meter it is used by the water providers to invoice us for our water consumption.
Most of the households have a water meter and every so often someone is coming to get the readings. This is what most of the people knows about water meters but for those with a little but more of knowledge and awareness the water meter can be a very useful tool to learn about our water consumption habits and find out ways to reduce the water consumption.
Do you know how much water you are using every time you are having a shower?
Do you know how many liters per minute you bathroom tap is consuming?
Are your bathroom taps delivering more liters per minute than necessary?
Are you wasting water without knowing it?
Learn how to read a water meter
If you want to learn how to read a water meter and decrease your water consumption, have a look to the video below from the **Youtube Effiworkx channel**. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgS-zXti7dq7j_oOwfdFjQ
In this video where we are explaining not only how to read a water meter and what a cubic meter of water is but also how this knowledge can translate into reduction our water consumption.
https://youtu.be/vjCK1j642M0
How many liters are a cubic meter of water?
A cubic meter (m3) of water is the equivalent to 1000 liters of water.
1m3 = 1000 liters
The cubic meter is the measurement unit used by the water providers to calculate the water cost based on an agreed cost per cubic meter. Most of the houses have a water meter which measures the amount of water being consumed and if we are able to understand the value displayed by the meter we can calculate the water cost.
As an example, the water meter below is showing a water consumption of 1,214 cubic meters (m3) which is the equivalent to 1214 liters.
(1214 liters / 1000) x 2 euro per cubic meter = 2,5 euro (approx.)
Reduce your water consumption
A water meter is a device that measures and records how much water is being consumed over time.
Now that you know how to read a water and what a cubic meter is, if you are interested on learning **how to reduce your water consumption and save money**, have a look to our water efficiency page. https://effiworkx.com/water/
We trust that the information shared if it of interest for anyone who is interested in becoming aware of how much water it is being consumed in our households and what are the best water saving opportunities that we can apply to reduce our water consumption and save money.
Laundry washing ball - Washing without detergent
We have been using a laundry washing ball at home at we can state that **it works**.
**For those clothes that do not have any major stains**, the laundry washing ball it is more than enough to have the clothes washed properly.
Now we are not only reducing our environmental impact by not using that much detergent by also saving money by significantly reducing the amount of detergent that we have to buy.
****Detergent****:
We are paying 15 euro for a 3,5 liters detergent bottle that, at 70 ml of detergent per cycle, allows us to run 50 cycles per bottle of detergent. Or, what it is the same, **a cost of 30 cents per washing machine cycle**.
****Laundry washing ball****:
We have paid 16,95 euro for our washing ball and it has a lifespan of 1000 washing cycles, or three years, which gives us **a cost of 0,016 euro per washing machine cycle**.
How does the laundry washing ball works?
The washing ball that we are using works by using a combination of magnets and mineral and ceramic balls. This combination it is used to increase the water PH value so impurities can be loosen more easily and washed away.
You just need to put the washing ball inside your washing machine drum along the clothes and that is it. Your clothes will be washed and no harmful substance or bleaches from detergents will finish up as part of the groundwater.
An efficient lifestyle reduces waste and expenses
**The path to water conservation** requires awareness, knowledge and the will to make our homes and lifestyles as efficient as possible.
If you would like to learn about other tips that can help you on saving energy, water and money, have a look to our Effiworkx Lifestyle webpage. https://effiworkx.com/lifestyle/
Earn Brave and Presearch tokens while surfing the web
Many of us spend a considerable amount of time every day using our laptops, PCs, tables or mobile phones surfing the web. Those devices use electricity and bandwidth that we need to pay every month. Over time, relatively small amounts of electricity may account for a significant expense and our mobile phones data plans may have a limit on how much bandwidth we can use and the more we use the more we need to pay.
**Why not to maximize the time that we spend browsing the internet by earning some BAT or PRE tokens**, then exchange those tokens to FIAT money (Euro, Dollar, Pound, Zloty,…). Then use those earnings to pay for part of our electricity bill or some additional bandwidth…
The Brave browser
No so long ago I started getting interested in the blockchain technology and, of course, into cryptocurrencies. To keep the story short, a piece of information lead to another piece of information and then I got to know about the Brave browser and Presearch search engine projects.
The first one, the Brave browser is a relatively new browser with a very similar look to other more known browsers, like Google Chrome, but with additional benefits like **enhanced security, lower data usage or increased privacy**. https://brave.com/eff183
The brave browser automatically blocks ads and trackers when you surf the web which leads to a decreased bandwidth usage, faster content load and less time for us users waiting for the web pages to load.
Additionally, the Brave browser is giving to their users **BAT tokens for clicking on ads**. Clicking on ads is utterly optional and the ads can be totally disabled while still enjoying a quick browser, with lower data usage and increased privacy features. But for those who don’t mind to click on relevant ads every so often, the browser is giving BAT tokens for every click. Once a month those tokens become available and they are transferred to an account from which those tokens can be redeemed.
As shown on the picture at the top of this post, last month I have earned a little over 11 BAT which are the equivalent to 2,5 euro. Maybe not a big amount of money but it will definitely will help with paying for the electricity used by my computer.
Note that to in order to use to BAT tokens and transform them into FIAT currencies or other crypto assets, it is mandatory to have a crypto wallet and know how to use it. The brave browser works with a wallet named Uphold, and on that wallet we can transform our BAT tokens to other crypto currencies, Fiat money or even gold. https://uphold.com/
Bonus Brave tip
If you are a Global Hive* user, your daily cryptocurrency gains are multiply by 10X if your are a Brave Browser user. https://globalhive.io/auth/register?ref=4633
*Global Hive is a crypto faucet and another way of earning small amounts of crypto, in this case Zcash (ZEC)
The Presearch search engine
In addition to the Brave browser, I am also using the Presearch search engine. Until now I was using Google for my searches but I have swapped to Presearch because not only I can run my searches but also earn some PRE tokens in the process. https://brave.com/eff183 https://www.presearch.org/signup?rid=1800787
To be fair, Presearch it is not yet at Google’s level and every so often I need to run some specific searches on Google.
At the moment I am not expending my PRE tokens because as an small content creator I will eventually stake to tokens towards getting more traffic to my website. Still, once the Presearch engine becomes more widely used, the tokens may increase in value and then I may decide to swap those tokens for cash.
Blockchain projects and Cryptocurrencies - Step out of your comfort zone
The bottom point is, if you are going to use a computer browser anyway and you are going to make some searches every so often, why not to **be efficient** and earn some BAT and PRE tokens in the process.
Also, this may be an effortless and profitable way to start learning about those blockchain projects that are going to become more and more widely used in the near future. For those new to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, terms like tokens may be bit alien and there may be some initial learning involved, but for those who are willing to **step out of the comfort zones**, there are rewards waiting to be found and collected.
Visit the Brave and Presearch websites and they will guide you through the process of installing the Brave browser and the Presearch search engine. From there, it is just matter of learning a bit more about crypto wallets and crypto currencies which it is a knowledge which will be of great value in the near future. https://brave.com/eff183 https://www.presearch.org/signup?rid=1800787
On this post we have shown a way to potentially earn some cash to pay for our bills, a different approach towards our standard saving electricity to pay less on our bills. Still, home efficiency is our main motto and getting profit out of our daily activities it is most definitely efficient. http://effiworkx.com/electricity/
Bonus Presearch Tip
If you are a content creator and you want to promote your content, you can stake your Presearch tokens to a given keyword(s) and your ad will show up when someone searches for that term in Presearch.
You keep ownership of your tokens and until (approximately) January the 26th, there is no cost for any traffic that your content receives through the add.
Do you want to know more? Visit us at www.effiworkx.com https://effiworkx.com/
Bringing life to an old laptop with Ubuntu
At some point or another, that laptop that has served us well for so many years it to become to ‘old’ to run operating systems, such as Windows 10, that require more up to date hardware.
This doesn’t means that we cannot use that old laptop anymore, because if it still works if would be a waste to throw it away. Instead, we can install an operating system that has lower system requirements.
And here it comes the best part, Linux based operating systems like Ubuntu are free, has much lower system requirements than Windows and can be installed easily and in no time.
Installing Ubuntu on an old laptop
Ubuntu can not only be downloaded from their official page but also they provide instructions on how to install it or even the option to try it before installing it by running it from an USB. https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop
As Ubuntu it is very well known and used, it has a lot of community support and a lot of resources are available on the net. Any doubt, question, clarification or already has an answer readily available or can be asked to the Ubuntu community.
As a warning, I must say that using Ubuntu may not that straightforward as using Windows. It requires some time to get used to any Linux distribution and some task like installing additional software may require some time and specific knowledge.
Said that, if that old laptop it is only required for some basic tasks like browsing internet or watching a movie, Ubuntu can deployed and used straight away.
Giving the old laptop new and useful purposes
Let’s explore our option for an old laptop…
That old laptop can be used as **a first PC for a young teenager**, a PC that can be used and ‘destroyed’ without incurring in a major loss.
In this case, an old laptop with Ubuntu it is just ideal because it can be the gateway to further knowledge like computer programming. We all know how smart our small children are and how quickly they can grasp new knowledge so that old laptop with Linux and a readily available command line may bring out the programming genie inside of that child or teenager.
In the worst case, the child will ‘break’ something and we just need to reinstall the free Ubuntu operating system.
Another option, maybe one that it is not in most people’s mind, it is to use to **mine cryptocurrencies**. Most people has heard about Bitcoin and that it is possible to mine it using some powerful hardware, but bitcoin it is not the only cryptocurrency that can be mined.
This relatively ‘young’ but with a lot of potential cryptocurrency called **Nimiq**, can be mined using a web browser and without the need to specific and expensive hardware. The old laptop with Ubuntu may be your gateway to learn about cryptocurrencies, the mining of cryptocurrencies and even the source of some passive income. https://www.nimiq.com/
Note that mining will consume power and our electricity bill may increase because of the higher power consumption. It is up to you, the person reading this article, to assess if Nimiq mining it is or it will be profitable and a possible passive income source.
We hope that this information has ‘saved’ the life of your old laptop and bring it new purpose. If you have some ideas or suggestions related to this topic, let us know so we can share them with other people.
After all, reducing waste and save money it is on everyone’s interest.
Do you want to know more?
https://effiworkx.com/
@effiworkx
