Wasteful families leave on TVs and lights
Nearly half of households waste electricity by leaving their televisions on with no one watching, a Friends of the Earth survey has found.
Of 187 families polled last month, 48 per cent - 89 households - said their televisions were on while no one was watching. Although 80 per cent of respondents said they used energy-saving lights at home, 37 per cent - or 70 families - said they often forgot to turn off lights.
'All the energy supposed to be saved is offset then,' said Friends of the Earth director Edwin Lau Che-feng after yesterday's survey release.
The survey found 28 per cent of households left computers on when they were sleeping, and 22 per cent kept their rooms at a temperature of 21 degrees Celsius or below.
'The air conditioner consumes a lot more energy than many other household appliances. We should avoid using it if it is not too hot,' Mr Lau said. 'Fans only consume one-tenth of the electricity of air conditioners.' He said more than HK$300 could be saved a year simply by using a 9,000-BTU air conditioner for one hour less every day.
The group found mean electricity consumption of lighting per private household doubled between 1994 and 2004, while that of public households increased by 39.7 per cent. Although the number of private households only rose by 33.6 per cent, the total electricity consumption of lighting increased from 1,212 to 3,797 terajoules. Meanwhile, with a 7.8 per cent increase in the number of public housing flats, their total lighting consumption grew by 50.5 per cent to 1,534 terajoules.
He called on all housing blocks to turn unused lights off and urged the government to conduct behavioural studies of electricity use for setting long-term energy conservation goals. Friends of the Earth also launched its second Power Smart contest yesterday to choose families that save the most energy. The family that saves the most energy will win a year's supply of organic vegetables.
Five things you can do to save energy
1 Turn off your computer when you are away for a long time
2 Avoid using standby mode on household appliances
3Turn off lights when you don't need them
4 Switch off the power when you are not watching TV
5 Avoid using air conditioners as far as possible
