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Energy Saving Week 2022
Energy Saving Week is just around the corner. From 17th January 2022, Citizens Advice, the Energy Savings Trust and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will be supporting and raising public awareness surrounding everything energy: from switching energy suppliers, tariffs, and making homes energy efficient as well as climate friendly.
Climate change is an important part of everyday discussion. It’s been normalised by activists and businesses alike, it transcends topics and pervades conversations, and it’s having a greater and greater influence on our everyday decisions – both in the workplace at IMI, and at home.
Everyday decisions such as eating less meat, walking short distances rather than taking the car, or finding creative engineering solutions to build a better, climate conscious world.
Or even saving energy around the home.
Read on to learn some easy, affordable methods to reducing your energy usage and shrinking your bill.
Save on Standby
‘Standby’ or ‘low-power mode’ is a feature available on most electronic devices, such as games consoles, computers, laptops, and TVs. It might go under many different guises, depending on the brand – Apple call it ‘Sleep’ and PlayStation call it ‘Rest Mode’, for instance. Ultimately, it’s an option where your device operates at a far lower power consumption but still install important updates. It can also pause or ‘suspend’ the application, game, or film that you were in the middle of, and comes with an orange light instead of a white one – just so you know what your device is doing.
Which begs the question: Is rest mode more of a quality-of-life feature than an energy efficient revelation?
If you can, configure the power saving settings on your devices to set the features available whilst in low-power mode. How long is the period of user inactivity until rest mode automatically kicks in? What kind of updates can be installed whilst on standby? These options will drastically affect power consumption.
But better yet, you could turn off the device completely – that way you’ll be saving as much energy as possible, equating to up to £40 a year.
Hello darkness, my old friend…
You could save £14 a year from your electricity bill simply by turning off lights when you leave a room. Need we say more?
Maybe we should. If you make the switch to LED lightbulbs across your home, you’ll drastically reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40kg a year – otherwise known as the equivalent of driving 140 miles by car.
For outside lights, consider using a sensor or a timer – or even invest in solar powered garden lights. They’re affordable, won’t sap your energy bill, and there are plenty of unique designs to suit your chic.
Feeling hot, hot, hot…
Hot water is one of the more expensive facets of our energy bills. Longer, hotter showers, frequent baths, or putting the washing machine on at over 30 degrees all add up to a shockingly steep bill.
Taking a 4-minute shower, for instance, could save you £45 a year. Similarly, washing clothes at a maximum of 30 degrees – on top of completely avoiding the tumble dryer – could save you up to £60 from your total annual bill.
Boiling water can be a costly affair. Did you know that roughly 100,000,000 cups of tea are enjoyed every day in the UK alone? Did you also know that almost three quarters of households in Britain overfill the kettle – leading to significant water and energy waste? Boiling only the water you need could save you £8 a year, and if the entire UK stopped overfilling the kettle, then the nation would save £68 million.
Chill out
We featured this tip in our recent 12 tips of Christmas article, but it’s something that’s relevant all year round: turn down the thermostat. By turning it down by 1 degree, you could save up to £80 a year.
But if that goes well, what’s to stop you going further?
Try turning the thermostat down incrementally. You’ll acclimatise to the slightly continually cooler temperature, and you might find that you’re just as comfortable with it being 5 degrees cooler at home.
We’ve only scratched the surface of energy saving techniques. We’ve made this list feature with cheap and free ways that you can save energy but spending money to save energy is also a valid option. Smart meters help to track your energy usage, so you can analyse your energy consumption both holistically and forensically. Draught excluders, double glazed windows, and installing a hot tap are all further examples of expenses that can save you money in the long-term.
To find out more about Energy Saving Week, head across to Citizen’s Advice. There, you’ll also find more energy saving tips, a guide to switching energy supplier, and official, licensed schemes that help you to save energy if you’re struggling.