Every home uses energy in one form or the other; and in most instances, this electricity comes from the power grid. Statistics indicate that almost 50% of a home’s energy is used by its HVAC systems while about 12% goes into the lighting. Most property owners presume that all the energy-efficiency upgrades happen through various home improvement upgrades such as replacement of wooden windows and doors with energy-efficient 2 or 3-paned vinyl windows etc.

While these changes do add to the energy-efficiency of your home, there are a number of electrical systems and maintenance upgrades that can significantly improve your energy usage, such as:

It’s not uncommon for us to occasionally leave the lights on when we leave a room. Or there may be times when we leave the deck, patio or poolscapes lights on all night with the security aspect in view. These types of habits can become a significant energy drain, but there is a way to curb that. We can install motion sensor lighting in the exterior spaces of your home; the lights will get switched on only when the sensor picks up any movement within its range. This helps you save energy without compromising on the safety factor in any way.

Most people don’t realise that their local electrician can help them when they are upgrading to energy efficient appliances. The fact of the matter is that simply replacing older appliances with ones that have high energy star ratings may not always help them reduce their electricity bills.

When you upgrade the appliances in your home such as air-conditioners, dryers, dishwashers and washing machines etc., these appliances tend to need a higher wattage compared to the older ones; this means the upgrade may actually strain the circuit breakers and your electrical system. It’s important to get a skilled electrician to come and check whether the existing wiring and system is built to bear the higher electrical loads that the newer, advanced systems need.

Inadequate or improper insulation is one more major sources of energy loss on most properties. And if you are considering a home renovation/remodelling/extension project, it’s a good idea to upgrade the insulation in your house as well.

Today, many property owners are quite committed to opting for eco-friendly alternatives to many materials and systems. If you feel you want to reduce your carbon footprint, you might want to consider installing solar panels in your home. This can significantly reduce your reliance on grid power.

Upgrading appliances or making major electrical upgrades can sometimes prove to be an expensive proposition and may not fit into everyone’s budget. This is why it’s important to know how to make some smaller changes that will also add to your home’s energy-efficiency. Some things that can make a big difference are:

“No two snowflakes are alike.” This is a statement nearly every schoolchild has heard at least once, either while crafting unique snowflakes with a sheet of folded paper and some scissors or while learning a lesson on the science of snow. While even most scientists don’t quite understand what causes a snowflake to form such complex and beautiful columns and points and branches, one thing is for certain, the composition of snowflakes guarantees that no two will ever be identical.  However, it is possible for two snowflakes to appear to be nearly exactly alike.

A snowflake begins to form when a piece of dust catches water vapor out of the air. Water is created when two hydrogen molecules attach to an oxygen molecule. The two hydrogen molecules are angled from one another in such a way that they form a hexagonal shape when they come together during the freezing process; thus, a snowflake begins as a simple hexagonal shape or as layers of hexagons called diamond dust. The emergent properties that follow from the original hexagon are what differentiate one snowflake from another, as the humidity, the temperature in the air, and many other factors (some of which remain unclear to scientists) allow each snowflake to form in an entirely unique way with a seemingly endless variety of shapes.

However, in 1988, a scientist named Nancy Knight claimed to have located two that were the same while studying snowflakes as part of an atmospheric research project. And it appeared to be so; when put under a microscope, the emergent properties looked nearly identical. But while it is feasible that two snowflakes can appear to be exactly alike on the outside, they are never identical on an atomic level. Deuterium is an atom that appears attached to about one in every 3000 hydrogen molecules in the air. Because there are millions of atoms that make up a snowflake, the random assortment of deuterium in any two snowflakes—even in two that so very closely resemble one another—simply cannot be the same.