Ways to Save Energy at Home
Need all those electricity powered appliances? How about comfortable temperature both during cold winter and hot summer months? Hot running water and other benefits of modern lifestyle? Don’t worry, no one is requiring from you to give them up. You can continue to enjoy all the comfort and convenience of modern lifestyle and save energy at the same time.
Listed below are only a few of many ways to save energy at home, and lower your energy bills and help save the environment:
Replace the traditional light bulbs with energy saving ones, if you haven’t yet. Compact fluorescent bulbs and LEDs are a little bit more expensive but they are more cost efficient in the long term. By replacing the traditional bulbs with energy saving ones, you can save £3 to £4 per year per bulb. Although it may not seem much but over the life of the bulb, you can save £50 to as much as £140 per each bulb.
Buy smart. When buying new appliances, be sure to watch for energy efficiency. You are recommended to choose the most energy efficient appliances available, especially when buying appliances that run most of the time or all the time such as refrigerators and freezers. The most energy efficient appliances tend to be slightly pricier but the investment pays off in the long term because they often use half the electricity as similarly sized appliances with only one energy efficiency grade less.
Don’t waste energy. Did you know that an average UK household pays up to £90 for things such as clock display on the oven and standby mode powering TV no one is watching? So turn off the light when leaving the room, turn off your electronics completely when not using them, run your appliances more efficiently (i.e. wash the laundry or dishes only when the machine is full, use cookers that match the size of the pot, etc.).
Insulate your home. Poorly sealing windows and uninsulated walls don’t only make your home more difficult to heat/cool but they also raise your energy bills sky high. Most of the energy used by the UK households goes on heating and cooling which is why it is a good idea to invest in insulation and replacement of poorly sealing windows. Your home will be much more warm during the winter and pleasantly cool during the summer with a lot less energy.
Save water. Did you know that water heating accounts for about one fourth of your heating bill? Well, it is true. If you want to save energy, be sure to save water too. Turn off the tap while brushing teeth, replace your inefficient shower head with an efficient one, use efficient cooling systems from well known companies and buy energy efficient appliances that use water such as washing machine and dishwasher when replacing the old ones.
Invest in renewables. The technology to generate enough energy to cover all your needs is available for quite some time. The best example are solar panels but unfortunately, they are quite expensive if you want them to generate enough electricity to run all your household appliances and heat/cool your home at the same time. But even the smallest upgrade, including water heating solar panels helps. Also worth considering are heat pumps, wood-fuelled heating and wind turbines.