Take a look at your fuse box. On the left hand side of the box there is a big black switch. This is your circuit breaker. Your electricity company calculates the base rate (demand charge) based on the ampage of your breaker switch. For example, TEPCO (Tokyo Denryoku) charge 520 yen for a 20 Amp contract ampere and 1040 yen for a 40 amp switch. If your electricity provider is TEPCO they have a great English website http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html explaining all about ampage and will send someone out to your place for a free consultation to ensure you have the optimum ampere contract for your household's electricity consumption.
Electricity use
Is your house lit up like a Christmas tree even after you turn off all the lights for the night? All those little red and green LEDs blinking and clocks keeping time are using electricity. Called 'standby power' the amount of electricity used by appliances left in standby mode is not inconsiderable. Research in Australia found that 11.5% of home energy consumption was used in this way. Not all appliances use the same amount of power when in standby mode, and there is some variation between brands, but in general VCRs (19 watts), fax machines (30 watts) and stereo systems (10 watts) are heavy standby power users. A stereo that uses 11.7 watts of power when in use was found to use 9.5 watts in standby mode! Similarly, left plugged in, a microwave oven uses more power over a year in standby than it does when in use.
While some appliances need to be left on (turning your fridge off each night would not be very healthy or frugal!) there are many appliances in our homes that don't need to be left on all day, everyday. A little extra effort could save you a lot of money.
In the home office
Many computer peripherals do not shut down completely when you turn the computer off. Printers, speakers, modems, external CD-ROMs etc do not need to be on when the computer is off. Putting all these devices on to one switched powerboard allows you to shut everything down with the flick of one switch. Many appliances come with AC power adapters (usually small black boxes). These devices change the 110-volt electricity from the wall socket into the lower voltage required by each appliance. During this conversion much of the unwanted electricity is dispersed as heat. Even if you are not using your laptop, speakers or mobile phone charger, if the adapter is warm to the touch, energy is being used. Therefore turning off the appliance at the switch is the most frugal way of shutting down such equipment.
If turning your computer off completely is not practical there are still steps you can take to minimize wasted electricity. http://www.rmfdevelopment.com/DesktopConservation.html describes how Windows and Linux users can create personal settings for their computer's standby, suspend and hibernation modes and maximize power conservation.
In the living room
Getting up and turning the TV, VCR, DVD player and stereo at the switch rather than with the remote will save you considerable energy.
One of the biggest energy consumers in the living room is heating. Whether you use an air conditioner/ heater unit, hot carpet, fan forced kerosene stove or kotatsu heated table there are steps you can take to keep warm AND frugal.
Air-conditioner unit
Clean or change the filters regularly. Running the air conditioner unit with dirty filters uses 5-10% more electricity than if the same unit was cleaned.
Grab a jumper/sweater. Are you guilty of walking around in the wintertime in a t-shirt? By grabbing a jumper/sweater and turning the heating down only 2 degrees you can save as much as 10% of the energy consumed by the air conditioner.
Hot carpet (electric carpet)
If your living room floor is wood or linoleum, placing a mat, towels, rug or newspaper between the floor and the hot carpet will provide insulation and stop heat loss.
When using a hot carpet sitting directly on the carpet (without using a floor cushion or seat) will give you best results.
Fan-forced heater
When selecting a heater look for one with a low energy mode (sho-ene or jaku unten). If you don't have small children or animals that may get burnt, a kerosene-only heater uses no electricity at all, relying instead on radiant energy. As with an air-conditioning unit keeping the thermostat at 22 degrees will help keep running costs down.
Kotatsu (Japanese low table with heat lamp, covered by large coverlet)
Thick equals warm. Changing the futon coverlet covering your kotatsu (kakebuton) from a 3cm thick one to a 10cm thick one will save you around 20% energy. If you don't have a 10cm think futon you can double up with two thinner ones. With a thick mat under the kotatsu (shikibuton) and a thick futon on top large enough to stop cold air getting in around the edges you will find that once you use the electric heater to warm the kotatsu you can turn it off and stay warm for quite some time.
Whichever method you use to heat your house you can make a big difference to your heating costs by ensuring that no drafts are getting in and using thick blinds or curtains on the windows. 10% of heat is lost through windows so if you don't mind how it looks a layer of clear bubble wrap fixed to the inside of the window is a good DIY double glazing trick.
In the kitchen
The fridge
One of the biggest users of electricity in the home is the fridge. A few simple steps can reduce the energy consumed in keeping your foodstuffs cool.
Location, location, location
In many Japanese kitchens you don't have a lot of choice where to place the fridge. If you do, however, aim for a cool place. According to the Centre for Environmental Information Science running your fridge where the surrounding air is 30 degrees uses 80% more electricity than the same appliance run in a 15 degree environment. Leaving adequate space around the fridge (at least 10cm on all sides) helps air circulate and aids efficient cooling. If your fridge is not too heavy to move, vacuuming the coils at the back will also help it run better. But be careful you don't knock or damage the coils as refrigerator gas is poisonous.
Optimum capacity
An over-full fridge uses a lot of energy. It is also not wise to let your fridge get too empty though as it takes more energy to cool air than foodstuffs. This is particularly true in the freezer. If you don't keep a lot of things in the freezer fill some containers with water or keep your freezer packs in there to reduce energy costs. Placing hot foods straight from stove to freezer is another energy waster. Try to leave dishes to cool to room temperature before freezing.
And opening the door to the fridge and THEN thinking about what you want to eat is an energy black hole. It can take up to eight minutes for the fridge to return to its set temperature after the door has been opened.
Rice cooker
Do you cook rice for the day all at once? It can actually be more frugal to cook rice twice than to keep it warm all day. For example, if you cook 4 cups of rice in the morning and keep it warm till dinner time you use more energy than you would have cooking two cups in the morning and another two for dinner. Some rice cookers have a low energy switch. Be careful though: in many cases this is not an energy efficient option as the same amount of energy is used- just over a longer period of time. This switch is designed to minimize the amount of energy used at one time so as not to overload the ampage breaker.
Hot water pot
In most cases a very energy inefficient appliance. If you need hot water on demand throughout the day (or have just got too used to having one to do without!) unplugging the pot before you go to bed saves you keeping all that water hot when noone will be using it. The hot water in the pot when you turn it off can be recycled into your hot water bottle.
If you need any more incentive to become energy efficient around the house check out the Kansai Electric Power Company's fun eco-check page: www.kepco.co.jp/sho-ene/ec/ec.html. All you need is a copy of your last electricity bill and in a couple of minutes you can see how many yen you could be saving by taking a few small steps to conserve energy.
References
By H. Fukase, Kasukabe, Japan. Copyright 2004.