Top 10 green household tips

                                                                              

At L&C, we’re in the business of saving our customers money. So here are our top tips for having a greener home and saving money, in typical L&C style.

1. Insulation

It’s common advice to insulate your home to make it more energy efficient, but it can be a costly business. A far cheaper method is to draught-proof your windows and look for other wasted sources of energy (such as curtains or furniture in front of radiators). Taking measures such as drawing curtains at night, lining your curtains, laying down a rug or carpet on wooden floors can all help keep your rooms warm, without the expense of insulation. And you should see a drop in your energy bills.

2. Energy saving light bulbs

Again, common advice but how many of us have actually taken it and replaced all our light bulbs at home? This is one of the most simple changes that you can make and you will see your electricity bill take a tumble.

3. Don’t let taps run

You clean your teeth, gaze into space and let the tap run...  Sound familiar? Then get into the habit of turning the tap off. Water usage is becoming an increasing problem, with us Brits using an average of 150 litres a day. And if you reduce your water use and switch to a water meter (which is often recommended if there are more bedrooms in your house than there are people) whereby you are charged for your water consumption, then you could see a drop in your water bill.

4. Turn the thermostat down

This applies to both central and hot water heating. Turning your room thermostat down by a mere 1 °C and putting on a jumper instead can save you money. Also reduce the thermostat on your hot-water tank to 60 °C — a suitable temperature for a bath, rather than using even more water by adding cold to reduce the heat.

5. Don’t heat air when cooking!

Sounds simple and it is: don’t pay to heat the air - use the cooker ring to match the size of the saucepan, and put a lid on the pan so that it heats quicker.

6. Get into the habit of switching off to save money

Remember to switch off household appliances such as your television, computer, stereo and microwave, as appliances continue to use energy even when on standby. 95% of the energy used by the UK's mobile phone chargers is wasted: only 5% is used to charge phones, the rest is used when the charger is plugged in but not switched off at the socket.

7. Take care of your fridge

It’s easy to waste energy via the fridge, as it’s probably the appliance that we go to the most in our homes. Try to avoid keeping the doors open, as this guzzles energy, and avoid putting warm/hot food into the fridge by allowing it to cool first. Defrost it regularly so that it remains efficient, plus keep your freezer in a cool room if possible.

8. Wash in full loads and at 30°.

Your washing machine will be more efficient both energy and water-wise if it is running on full load, and at a lower temperature.

9. Read the labels when buying new appliances

Buying energy efficient appliances in the first place will keep your energy bills down, so read the labels when purchasing. For example, buying an energy-efficient boiler - which accounts for more than 80% of home energy use—can make a huge difference to bills.

10. Get an electricity monitoring gadget

It’s easy to forget how much electricity you are consuming when the meter is tucked away in a cupboard. Instead, invest in a gadget such as the Electrisave Electricity Monitor so that you can see at a glance what you are spending. Small, unobtrusive and portable, you can see the energy impact of using the kettle or the toaster — or what exactly is happening as a result of all those appliances on standby.

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