As we are all spending more time at home these days it’s likely that your energy bills could be rising. Working from home means computers are on, heating might be used if it’s a cold day, kids are home schooling and on devices and settling into more Netflix! Combine this with the cooler weather and your energy use could easily sky rocket.
We’ve put together a few easy (yes at times maybe obvious!) tips that can help you save energy and keep thinking sustainably through COVID-19.
Appliances and Lighting
1. Use a laptop over a desktop if possible – They use less electricity to run and can work in power saver modes.
2. Turn appliances off at the wall of you aren’t using them as they can drain power even in standby mode.
3. Only use heated towel rails when needed, or put them on a timer (get into a habit of hanging the towels outside to dry if the weather is good enough).
4. If you have any old light globes in the house replace them with energy-efficient light globes such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These will last longer in the long run and are much cheaper to run.
5. Turn off lights when they are not being used…an obvious oldie but a goodie!
Kitchen
6. Decide what you need out of the fridge before opening it – opening and closing the door unnecessarily uses more energy as the fridge is working more to keep the temperature constant.
7. Defrost your freezer – this will help it will run more efficiently
8. Cook large batches of food and freeze the leftovers.
Washing
9. Use your washing machine efficiently – Wash full loads with a cold wash where possible – most of the energy goes into heating the water so this is a very easy way to make some cost savings. If your machine has a short or eco-cycle available consider using this for appropriate loads.
10. Avoid using your dryer unless absolutely necessary – on a sunny autumn day get the washing out to line dry, a bit of a breeze with the intensity of the sun should do the trick. If you are using your ducted floor heating at night place clothes horses over the top of the ducts and put a towel over the top of the clothes horse – creating a tent-like set up dries the items beneath pretty quickly.
Now you have your energy saving sorted out, let’s look into the waste…click here for some waste reduction tips at home through COVID-19