Tips to save your money and the planet

The Jakarta Post

Power outages and water crises are inevitable occurrences in Jakarta, which relies on limited natural resources. In the second of three guides, The Jakarta Post's Adianto P. Simamora, Anissa S. Febrina and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak provide tips for households to save electricity and water.

Shopping for groceries

Ask for used cardboard boxes for your groceries instead of plastic bags. If possible, bring your own bags.

When choosing between two similar products, select the one with the least unnecessary packaging.

Consider large or economy-sized items for household products that are used frequently, such as laundry soap, shampoo, pet foods, and cat litter. These sizes usually have less packaging per unit of product. For food items, choose the largest size that can be used before spoiling.

Look for items that are available in refillable containers. For example, some bottles and jugs for beverages and detergents are made to be refilled and reused, either by the consumer or the manufacturer.

When possible, use rechargeable batteries to help reduce garbage and keep toxic metals found in some batteries out of the waste stream. Another alternative is to look for batteries with reduced toxic metals.

Avoid detergents that produce large amounts of bubbles. The more bubbles it produces, usually the more it will pollute the water.

In the kitchen

Use the washing machine at its full load capacity.

Front loading washing machines save more water and use less detergent than top loading ones.
Washing your dishes under a running tap requires 15 times more water, try switching to using three separate pails of water to wash instead.

Use the waste water from washing fruits and vegetables to water your garden.

Don't run an empty re-frigerator or freezer as they lose more cold air, consume more energy than full ones (once completely chilled).

If you don't need enough food to fill your refrigerator and freezer, simply fill it with water-filled plastic bottles.

Don't leave fridge doors open for longer than necessary. Let food cool down fully before putting it in the fridge or freezer.

Defrost your freezer regularly and keep it at the right temperature. Wherever possible don't stand cookers and refri-gerators next to each other.

In the bathroom and laundry

Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth or scrubbing dishes.

Use water conserving low flush toilets to minimize water consumption and the production of waste water.

For non-water conserving toilets, place objects such as bricks, plastic bottles or weight loaded plastic bags into the cistern in order to reduce the volume of each flush. Make sure you place the objects in places where they won't disturb the flushing mechanism.

Your shower is another water consuming device. Install a low-flow shower head or install a flow res-triction device into the supply line in order to reduce your water consumption.

So-called "gray water" can be collected from sinks, tubs, and everything else except toilets, and then reused in order to reduce your fresh water consumption.

Regularly clean your vacuum cleaner. A dusty filter means more electricity is needed to start the machine.

In the living room and study

Use energy-saving lighting. Consider using low-energy fluorescent bulbs rather than incandescent ones. They last longer and cost less to replace over time. If you replace 25 percent of your lights in high-use areas with fluorescent, you can save about 50 percent of your lighting ener-gy bill.

Set your air conditioner at the most comfortable temperature (5 degree Celsius below the outdoor temperature is suggested). The lower the temperature, the more energy is wasted.

Clean or replace air conditioning filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.

Switching off your computer screen during breaks can help save energy.

Whenever you can, print on both sides of paper. It helps save the energy used during production.

Turn off televisions, videos, stereos and computers when they are not in use - they can use between 10 percent and 60 percent of the power it takes to run them when they are on "stand by".

Do not leave outdoor lights on all night or during the day - consider using timers or sensors.

Use the lowest wattage needed to adequately light up an area.

Use task or special purpose lighting to supplement general lighting wherever possible.

Keep lights and fittings clean. Dusty or dirty globes and fittings can reduce light output by up to 50 percent.

Avoid having several lights activated by one switch.

Sources: Indonesian Architects Association, BPPT, WWF Indonesia Power Switch campaign, www.epa.gov, various sources.