Start of a new year brings new energy habits

by Donica Kaneshiro | Jan. 7, 2023

Although I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, every year around this time, I find myself reassessing my habits and goals.

Like everyone else, my family is always looking for ways to be more energy conscious. It saves money on our electric bill and helps the environment. It doesn’t get more win-win than that.

But we’ve already taken to turning off the water heater when it’s not in use and switched to LED lightbulbs, so I went to the Hawaiʻi Energy website in search of some new tips.

I know I’m never going to get buy in from the teenagers to watch less television, but I found out if I dial down the brightness on the TV, I can reduce the energy it uses by up to 30%. Their young eyes don’t even notice the difference.

Sometimes the family can get lazy and not toggle between devices when they shift from playing Xbox to streaming on Netflix, but I was surprised to read that using a game console to stream TV shows can use up to 15x more energy than digital media players. We’ll be sticking with our DVR or Roku from here on.

In the kitchen, I learned that moisture from uncovered food and drinks in the refrigerator can make the compressor work harder, using more energy. That’s reason enough to remember to cover all the leftovers and drinks before putting them in the fridge.

I’m also making a point to close the blinds on the kitchen window each afternoon when the sun streams in onto my fridge, warming it up and making it work harder.

We try not to run the air conditioner unless the weather turns particularly hot and humid. But when we do, a little yard work can go a long way to making the AC work more efficiently. I found out an air conditioner in the shade with plenty of air circulation can work up to 10% more efficiently.

Inside the house, lamps and other heat sources placed too near to the air conditioner’s thermostat can disrupt the sensors and cause the air conditioner to run longer than necessary.

These easy energy savers won’t save a ton of power, but small gains add up over time and most of them take almost no effort. Sounds like another win-win to me.

Find more tips at hawaiienergy.com/tips.

Donica Kaneshiro is a communications consultant at Hawaiian Electric Company.