As the evenings stretch and the days get brighter, now is the time to get on top of your energy usage and form good habits to keep your costs down throughout the year. While it’s expensive to replace windows and doors or upgrade your insulation, there are plenty of smaller changes you can make to reduce your energy usage like avoiding energy-heavy tasks like washing or cooking during peak hours of 5pm-7pm.
Here are some of our top tips for a more energy efficient home…
Laundry Tips
Keeping on top of your laundry is a never-ending chore. These are the main things you can do to prolong the life of your clothes and your machine while keeping your energy usage as low as possible.
Prolong the life of both your clothes and machine by washing at lower temperatures 30 or 40 degrees is plenty to keep your clothes clean.
When possible, use the Eco cycle on your machine to make sure your wash is as energy efficient as possible.
Don't overfill the drum and make sure you can fit your hand sideways on top of the clothes. A medium load should fill half the drum and a large load should fill three quarters of the drum.
Keep your washing machine clean by running a Drum Clean cycle at least once a month and giving your washing machine filter a good scrub.
Be mindful of when you put on a wash and try to avoid lengthy cycles during peak hours of 5pm to 7pm.
Refrigeration Tips
Our fridge freezer is the only appliance that is on 24/7 365 days a year so it's important to ensure it's running as effectively as possible.
Much like your washing machine, don't overfill your fridge and freezer as air needs to easily circulate to maintain a steady temperature.
Don't hang out at the fridge with the door open as it will change the internal temperature, making the fridge use more power to get it back to normal.
If you don't have a frost-free freezer, regularly defrost it as even just a quarter inch of a build up can affect the efficiency of your freezer.
If you can, clean the vent at the back of your fridge freezer so there’s no build up of dust.
Cooking tips
With remote working, we’re using our kettles, toasters, ovens and hobs more than ever. From breaking habits to being more mindful of how we use our appliances, there are simple ways to reduce your energy usage when cooking.
Resist the temptation to open your oven to check on your food as this makes the temperature drop and the oven will have to work harder to get it back to your desired temp.
If you can use your air fryer to cook, it costs less to run than your oven and cooks faster too!
If you want to cook something slowly, using a slow cooker is substantially more energy efficient than your oven.
Only boil the amount of water you need instead of overfilling your kettle.
Lighting & heating tips
Keeping your home warm and bright will be the bulk of your energy usage with lighting being 11% of your annual costs, not to mention keeping a home cosy during the colder months.
Swap traditional bulbs for LED bulbs as they last longer and cost less to run.
Where possible, turn off your appliances, TVs, consoles, etc at the wall instead of leaving them in standby mode.
Make sure you're only heating and lighting rooms that you're using.
For those harder to reach sockets, invest in a smart plug so you can easily turn it on/off and automate your appliances.
Reducing your thermostat by one degree to save on heating.
Get a smart thermostat and radiator valve to easily keep track of your home temperature and control it.
As you can see, there are numerous things you can do to reduce your energy usage. If you want to reduce it even more, invest in energy efficient appliances that have features designed to keep your energy costs low. Shop our Go Greener range of home appliances here.
