Now that we have just started the month of July, there are many of us who are lucky enough to be able to go on vacation for a few days. During these, the most normal thing is that we are several kilometers away from our house, which will be deserted. That’s when a question may arise: what should I do with my appliances while I’m gone? In this article we will try to answer that question.
Even if we are not at home, most appliances that we leave plugged in and turned on will continue to consume energy , which will make the electricity bill continue to increase. Obviously, not all electrical appliances are the same, so perhaps it is convenient for you to leave one or another connected to the current.
The fridge and the thermos, the two keys
We begin by talking about the refrigerator or fridge, since it is possibly the appliance in your home that consumes the most energy . This is because it is obviously one of the few appliances that we always have plugged in and working. Generally, there is often a debate about whether or not to unplug, but the truth is that there is no universal answer for it.
Ideally, if we talk about disconnecting the fridge, it is to do it only if we leave home for more than two or three weeks . If we leave for less time and still disconnect it, we could be doing damage to the refrigerator, which would see how the gas inside is destabilized. This would not be “deadly” for the appliance, but it would take much more work for it to start up again when we plug it in, which will obviously make it consume more energy.
If you are leaving home for a longer time, then it is advisable to unplug the fridge. To do this, of course, we must have it empty of food, since otherwise they will go bad and we will have to throw away a lot of food. There is an intermediate solution that most modern refrigerators have, and that is known as vacation mode . This mode is used so that the refrigerator stays at a temperature that consumes very little energy, but, on the contrary, it leaves the freezer active so that we do not have to take the frozen food with us. If you are worried about the consumption of the refrigerator in this mode, you can always connect it to a smart plug to control it.
Smart plugs.
Going to talk about the thermos , the truth is that here we do not have to go around too much. If you have an electric water heater in your house, you should unplug it yes or yes before leaving, since this way you can save a good pinch on your bill while you are on vacation, and it is silly to leave it on, since if you are not at home you will not need water hot for nothing
Unplug everything you can
Although the thermos and the fridge are the two appliances that you should not lose sight of, we cannot ignore any device that we have connected and on “stand by” . Any device that we have connected and has a pilot light or a screen on will also be consuming energy. Each one by itself is not too much, but it will be a good part of our bill if we have many connected to the network. We are talking about the router, the alarm clock, the microwave, the console, etc. We recommend that you unplug as many as you can.
On the other hand, not all electrical appliances have to be disconnected from the mains. Some such as the washing machine, the dryer or the dishwasher do not use any electricity while we are not using them, although of course you are free to unplug them if you wish. It should also be added that there is a drastic solution that you can use if you do not want to complicate your life too much: go to the electrical panel and turn everything off . In this way you will ensure that your consumption is zero during the holidays, but if you do this we recommend that you take special care with the fridge, as we have said previously.