Mumbai: Solar energy saves Rs 2 lakh of society's electricity bill

Electricity bills have always been one of the top notch concerns for people leaving in metro cities. But, Raheja Eternity Housing Society of Kandivali area of Mumbai has not only taken measures to control the electricity consumption, but has also indulged in environment-friendly initiatives for the development of their society.

Raheja Eternity Housing Society with capacity of around 229 flats is the youngest among other societies of Thakur village in Kandivali. Just six-month-old, this beautiful society with scenic beauty has put in environment-friendly approach to protect the natural beauty and has contributed a lot for the betterment of society, right from the use of LED lights to aiming a near zero conventional energy consumption, minimising water consumption, to installation of solar power plant. By using solar power, these people are almost saving Rs 2 lakh per month on electricity bills.

"We wanted to protect environment, so we planned to get into renewable energy, main aim was to convert tubelights to LED lights and to reduce co2 emission and also cut down maintenance bill which was expensive mostly due to the electricity. Earlier, we used to get bill of Rs 4 lakh, now we have managed to reduced it to Rs 1.30 lakh," said SK Sahu chairman of Society.

Keeping the importance of nature in mind, the society celebrated World Environment Day showcasing it's various activities that resulted in the reduction of 61 per cent of energy consumption and also completed installation of its 65KW capacity rooftop solar system that generates around 280-300 units per day, which further adds to conserve conventional energy and add to use of Renewal energy.

Besides promoting renewal energy, the society has also progressed on the conservation of water. Out of total use of water consumption in toilets, more than 60 per cent has been replaced by using treated water, society has also recently started using water saver nozzles in kitchens that enabled to reduce the flow to almost 50 per cent, which resulted in huge saving of potable water.

Society also has a full-fledged rain water harvesting system which has a huge storage tank. And to achieve zero garbage, society has opted for a fully-automatic compost converter which converts compost in three days.

Society members are pretty much satisfied and excited with these initiatives and completely support the decisions taken as it has resulted in huge cut down of expenses for them. Society is planning to celebrate the International Plastic Bag Free Day by distributing cloth bags to each residents.

Raheja Eternity Society is in full power mode to further enhance and expand the development projects and has planned certain other initiatives for the betterment of the society as well as to conserve environment. Raheja Eternity Society further plans to promote the maintenance of green environment among the neighbouring societies as well and it surely sets an example for other societies.