Below are some household tips for saving another £350 per year.
✅ The Energy Saving Trust recommends heating your home to between 18 to 21 degrees Celsius during winter. And The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that 18 degrees is the ideal temperature for healthy and well-dressed people. There is about £100 a year saving per degree so 18 degrees Celsius instead of 21 could be around £300 per year in savings. People believe that it is cheaper to have the heating on low all the time. But it's not. According to the Energy Saving Trust again, you can make £150 per year by using a thermostat to regulate the temperature.
✅ You can Save up to 8% in gas use, by turning down the 'flow’ temperature on a Combi boiler.
Understanding Appliances
(a) Wet appliances
✅ Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers account for 14% of a typical energy bill, taking the top spot in our list. The power needed to heat the water that they use pushes up consumption, making them energy-hungry household appliances. Actively choosing to wash clothes at a lower temperature can help reduce your energy consumption and try to avoid washing half loads to save water. Drying clothes is a massive energy eaters and can use up to 4kWh of electricity per cycle. When weather is warm, hang your clothes outside which can also help kill bacteria or anytime hang in an aerated room in the house. With today’s effective washing machine detergents, there’s often no need to run your washing machine any higher than 30°C – clean clothes, energy saved, job done!
(b) Cold appliances
✅ Fridges and freezers also account for around 13% of the average household’s energy bill. By their very nature, these appliances need to stay on all the time, so they’re continually drawing power to maintain a constant temperature. They’re also among the longest-lasting appliances in our home. The typical fridge-freezer has a lifespan of 17 years! Since they’ll be on 24 hours a day and could last you 17 years, there’s a huge benefit to investing in an energy-efficient one.
• Make sure the temperature is at the right level - your fridge should be below 5oC (41oF), according to the Food Standards Agency, and your freezer should ideally be -18℃ (0oF).
• Don't overfill your fridge - leaving space allows air to circulate and helps keep the fridge at the set temperature. Your fridge is at its most efficient when it’s three-quarters full.
• Vacuum the back of the fridge every now and then to prevent dust from building up around the condenser coils. This could improve energy efficiency by 25%.
• Defrost food in the fridge to help lower the temperature and wait until hot food has fully cooled down before you put it in the fridge to store.
(c) Lighting
✅ Coming in just behind your electronics, lighting takes up around 5% of an average home’s total energy bill. You can reduce the amount of energy you use by replacing halogen bulbs with LEDs. LEDs come in a range of shades from cool to warm, allowing you to create the lighting effect that you want for your home. If the average household replaced all bulbs with LEDs, it would cost about £160 and save around £55 a year on bills.
(d) Cooking
✅ Are your cooking habits costing you too much in your energy bills? Around 4% of your energy bill is spent on powering kitchen appliances, including the hob, oven, kettle and microwave. Microwaves are more efficient than ovens at cooking, as they only heat the food and not the air space inside. And try to avoid overfilling the kettle. By filling your kettle just to the level you need, it could save you up to a third of the energy you have been using.
✅ The extra cost of not switching appliances off was found to come to an average of £45.74 a year – the equivalent of six per cent of a total energy bill.
✅ Unplug all your chargers Across the country, people are unnecessarily over-charging their mobile phones, MP3 players, and laptops. Instead, as soon as your device is fully charged, try and get into the habit of unplugging it. Not only will this save energy, but it also prolongs battery life
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