More of us are starting to consider our use of energy around the home and want to reduce it. Whether you want to cut the amount of energy you use in order to live a more eco-friendly life, or just to lower your utility bills, then try some of these simple ways to cut down the amount of energy you use.
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Turn Off Your Appliances
All those appliances designed to make our lives easier, like the washing machine, dryer, or dishwasher, use a lot of power to use. If you’re trying to reduce your energy use, you should try to cut back on using them as much as possible.
You can start very easily by washing the dishes by hand instead of loading up the dishwasher. You can always save the dishwasher for occasions when you’ve had lots of people for dinner and have a lot more things to wash than usual.
Instead of always drying clothes in the tumble dryer, hang your washing outside on a line wherever the weather is dry enough, or inside on a clothes horse if you have enough room for one.
It’s cheaper to run appliances during off-peak hours. These hours are usually during the night. Check with your electricity company, and if you do need to run something like the washing machine or the dishwasher, put it on at night. Some of these appliances have timers built-in, or you can use a timer switch at the socket to switch it on when the power is cheaper to use.
Consider Alternative Power
Could you add some ways to use alternative power in your home? Solar power is the most popular, and the easiest option for producing energy for homes. You can learn more about solar power at www.choosesolar.com to decide if this could be a possibility for your home.
Fitting solar panels is a bigger change, but there are often grants available to offset the cost of fitting them in order to encourage people to produce at least some of their own power. See if a grant like this is available in your area. After the panels have been in place for a while, they will pay for themselves too with what they save you on your utility bills.
Save Water
Reduce your water bill by reducing the amount of water that you use around the house. Taking showers uses less water than taking a bath, but only if you don’t stand under there for hours at a time. Try to keep your showers as short as you can, and encourage the rest of the family to do the same. For washing the dishes, use a washing-up bowl instead of filling the sink with water. A bowl needs less water to fill, and that small saving can really add up over time.
If you have a garden that needs a lot of watering, don’t run the hose or fill the watering can directly from the tap. Instead of using even more water, reuse water that you’ve already used for something else. This is sometimes called gray water. Gray water could be rainwater that you have caught and saved in a waterbutt, or water saved from washing the dishes or from cooking. Used water is perfectly okay for watering your plants, and will mean you can use a lot less water.
Turn Down The Thermostat
Nobody wants a cold house but cranking up the heating can drive up your bills. Instead, turn down the thermostat. Even dropping it one degree lower can lower the amount of energy you use, and your bill, without changing the temperature in a way that you can notice. You’ll still be warm enough but will have a lower bill.
To cut back further on how much heating you need, you should make sure you have an adequate attic insulation and double-glazing to stop the heat from escaping out of the house. Check the walls for any cracks or gas and get them repaired to stop heat getting out of those.
Some small changes around the house can add up to make a lot of difference to the amount of energy and water that you use. By making these changes to the way you use power at home, you can reduce your utility bills and make your home a little greener at the same time. Start with a few changes, and build up to more over time as you learn what works for you.
