Simple Electricity Saving Tips
How To Save Money On Your Electricity Bills
Your electricity bills are calculated throughout the year on the consumption of energy that you use throughout your home when using a variety of different electrical appliances. All these different appliances use different amounts of energy and some appliances use far more than others. Fridges and Freezer contribute to around 20% of your energy bill and if you are not running energy efficient appliances, it is well worth considering buying one when you next come to upgrading them. The majority of electrical appliance now display how much energy they use over a year which is obviously a great help when choosing and buying a new appliance.
The way you use your electrical appliances is a determine factor of how much energy you use and how much money you will pay for using them. We all take electricity for granted, it is always there at the flick of a switch but no of us really thinks about how much it is costing us every time we switch on a light, put on the kettle or wash and iron our clothes. However, a little forethought into minimising the amount of electricity you actually waste unnecessarily, will result in you reducing your electricity bills throughout the year.
The following electricity saving tips may seem obvious but they are all things that most people do not do. Sometimes we just need reminding of the basic things to help us save a little more money throughout the year.
Electricity Saving Tips To Help Reduce Your Bills
• The tumble dryer is probably the second most energy zapping appliance in your house after the fridge. A very easy way to cut down on your energy consumption is to hang your washing out to dry (weather permitting) and if the weather is bad, use a clothes horse indoors to let your clothes dry. Don’t put the clothes directly on the radiator as this will stop heat circulating and will obviously counter balance what you are trying to achieve by saving energy. It is always a good idea to open windows slightly to avoid damp and condensation that results from the clothes drying.
• Up to 80-90% of the energy used in your washing machine and tumble dryer occurs when the appliances are heating up the water to do the wash. By dropping the temperature of your water and washing your clothes with warm water rather than hot can dramatically reduce the consumption. Modern washing powders are just as efficient at lower temperatures.
• Don’t forget to use the ‘Half Load or Economy’ function, this will reduce the energy and electricity consumption.
• Switching your TV off using your remote and leaving the TV in ‘standby’ mode, is still using electricity and wasting energy. Always make sure you switch the appliance off by using the main power button or at the plug socket itself. By leaving the appliance on ‘standby’ mode, it will still use 85% of the energy as it would on full power. Getting into the habit of pulling the plugs out of your TV and any other electrical appliance that may be connected to it, will also helped reduce the risk of electrical fire.
• Always turn your lights off when you leave the room. This may seem an obvious thing to state but I am sure you have entered a room in your house that you left for a period of time only to find you had left the light on. More annoyingly, (especially if you are the one paying the bills) is when you live in a house and you are constantly turning the light off when other people have left the room and left the light on! Make people in your household aware and tell them to turn the light off after them.
• At least 10-15% of your electricity bill is on lighting. A traditional light bulb will convert its energy into heat thus wasting a considerable amount of energy. It is wise to invest in energy saving light bulbs that last 10 times longer than a traditional light bulb and that use up to 4 times less energy. Changing your bulbs throughout your house may be a little more expensive but will save you a considerable amount of money in the long term.
• Use solar lights in your garden rather than outside lights connected to the mains, you could also take the solar lights in to your house at night if you wanted to cut back on your electricity bill and then put them back outside in the day to recharge. Another great way to save on electricity with outdoor lighting is to purchase the battery operated outdoor lights. These are great and can last up to 60 days on a couple of batteries and are especially useful at Christmas time
• Using an ‘A’ rated appliance can save you a considerable amount of money than using an older appliance. All appliance must now be graded and the grades are from A-G. Since July 2012 it is now compulsary for all Fridges and Freezer to have a minimum graded of A+.
• Laptops use far less electricity than a desktop computer and obviously take up less space.
• Computers still use electricity even when they are closed down. Printers, scanners, external drives etc will also still use electricity when not being used, so why not switch them off if they are not being used and save yourself a little more money throughout the year?
• Once appliances such as mobile phones, shavers, cameras etc have finished charging, switch them off and pull the plug at the socket because if you don’t, they will continue to draw electricity. This in itself is unessesary energy consumption that is actually costing you more money.
As you can see from the short list above, saving energy is not rocket but simply common sense. Changing the way you operate in your own home can cut the cost of your electricity bill dramatically, without you actually having to spend any money or inconvenience yourself implementing these easier solutions. By using the electricity saving tips above, you can now begin to reduce you costs over a period of time.