Information taken from nPower
Cut Down
Lights: Could you get into the habit of turning lights off when you leave a room? A family could save between £50 and £90 a year just by remembering to turn things off, if they don't already do this. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013).
Showers: How about replacing a soak in the bath with a shower once a week? You’ll be surprised how much energy you could save this way.
Washing machines: Check out your washing machine’s settings, see if there’s a ‘half load’ option for small amounts of clothes. With modern washing powders, you can usually choose a lower temperature on your washing machine too.
Turn Down
Water temperature: Check the thermostat on your boiler, see what the temperature settings are for hot water and think about turning it down just a couple of degrees. That will make a difference to the amount of energy you’re using.
Heating: Turn down your general thermostat settings too: 21°c should be plenty. You may be used to having your house much warmer than this, so if your thermostat’s set at 24 or 25°c, turn it down one degree at a time over a couple of weeks. And just remember: every degree that you turn it down could save you around £65 a year on your heating bill! (Source: Energy Saving Trust, October 2013).
Radiators: Switch off radiators in the rooms you’re not using regularly and keep internal
doors shut. Otherwise, draughts and poorly insulated windows will mean you’re burning energy
un-necessarily.
Shut Down
Electrical goods: When you leave mobile phones, laptops and iPod chargers on standby, they could still be using energy. Switching them off and unplugging them once they’re fully charged is a great way to be more energy efficient. And remember – if your charger has an LED to show it’s in use, it’s still using energy until you switch it off at the wall.
Appliances: Do you use a dishwasher? Wait until it’s fully loaded before starting it, and remember that – if you run it overnight – it’ll be using energy until you switch it off in the morning. Why not invest in a timer plug and run it automatically for a shorter period of time instead?
Other ways to save energy
Climate control? It’s easy
- Curtains: Closed curtains prevent warm air escaping from the windows at night, and that helps keep your house warmer for longer
- Radiators: Do make sure your radiators aren’t blocked by curtains or furniture – it’s good to make the best of the heat you’re paying for!
- Don’t forget: Also, if the sun warms some rooms but not others, leave internal doors open to let the warm air circulate throughout your home.
Fit a jacket to your hot water tank
- Treat your boiler to a new insulation jacket - it’ll keep your water hotter for longer and that will reduce your energy bills
- If you already have a hot water tank jacket, check it’s the recommended thickness of 75mm
- If not, a new one is easy to fit yourself - the materials will only cost you around £25 and you could save around £60 a year!
- With those savings, it could pay for itself in just a few months. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013).
Track how much energy you’re using
- Energy monitors help you track how much energy you’re using
- They also pinpoint wasteful, inefficient appliances
- A monitor will cost somewhere around £50 to £100, but if you spot ways to save energy quickly, this could pay for itself within a year
- Energy monitors can be great to help educate your family on energy saving habits, keeping your bills down.
Buy draught excluders
- Draught excluders are great for keeping out the chilly draughts that sneak in around your windows and doors
- Thermal or heavy curtains help during the winter, as do letter box covers and key hole covers – keeping the cold chills out and the warm air in.
Use energy efficient light bulbs
- A new, energy-efficient light bulb uses much less electricity than an old-fashioned bulb
- When you swap your old bulbs for new energy-efficient version, you could be saving up to £50 each time over the lifetime of the bulb. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013)
What's watt?
Like all energy companies, we measure how much energy you’ve used in kilowatt hours (kWh). When you use 1000 watts of energy for 1 hour, that's a kilowatt-hour. To make life easier, we’ve worked out the kWh measurements for some everyday examples so you can see how much energy you’re using.
A kilowatt hour gives you:
- 9 uses of a kettle
- 4 hours watching tv
- 24 hours gaming
- 286 hours of phone charging
- 27 minutes ironing
- 31 hours on a laptop
- 1-2 cycles of a washing machine
- 80 minutes using a microwave
No comments:
Post a Comment