Home Tips

Home Energy Saving Tips – 55% of your Carbon emissions*
If you took all these small steps on average you could cut your household CO2 emissions by 6 tonnes and save £500 off your annual home energy bill. You could use this money to invest in some energy saving items for your home, transfer to electricity from renewable sources, and offset your remaining emissions.

1. Turn your thermostat down and keep it between 18-21°. Reducing your room temperature by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent, reduce it further and you will save more - if you feel cold try putting a jumper on first. Save 1 to 2.5 Tonnes CO2 and £50-£125 a year.

2. Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat shouldn't need to be set higher than 60°C/140°F keeping it low can reduce your hot water bill by 10%. Save 250kg of CO2 and £40 a year.

3. Have showers not baths. If you do have a bath make sure someone shares it with you – as long as you don’t get the end with the taps! Replace your shower head with a new low pressure one for about £10. The newest versions push the water through smaller apertures and mix in air to create good pressure whilst reducing your water use. Save 350kg of CO2 and £40 a year.

4. Use energy saving light bulbs. Just one can save you £100 over the lifetime of the bulb - and they last up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs. Replace 3 frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Save 350kg Tonnes of CO2 and £40 a year.

5. Insulate everything you can. Roof, walls, hot water cylinder and your body. Remarkably, 10-50% of a home’s energy losses come through improper
insulation, particularly in the roof, with over half of current homes poorly insulated huge CO2 and financial savings can be made. Save 0.25 to 2.5 Tonnes of CO2 and £40 - £400 a year.

6. …and always turn off the lights when you leave a room. You can save
125kg of CO2 a year and £20 a year.

7. Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows.

8. Don't leave appliances on standby or charge unnecessarily. Pay particular attention to your mobile phone and mp3 chargers. Try putting your Computer and TV equipment on a 4 way extension – then you will only have 1 plug to turn-off when you are finished. Save 450kg of CO2 and £50 a year.

9. Fill up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher, if not use the half-load or economy programme. Buy energy efficient (A or B) rated appliances whenever possible.

10. Put lids on pans when cooking and choose the right size pans for the cooker rings. Heating beyond the pan edge wastes energy.

11. Keep your fridge running efficiently by cleaning the dust of the condenser coils at the back. A dirty condenser uses up to 30% more energy.

12. Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you're using an electric kettle). A kettle uses the same power per minute as 200 Energy efficient light bulbs. An average family can save 125kg of CO2 a year and £20 a year.

13. Dry clothes outside on a sunny day whenever you can, or inside on a clothes horse rather than use the tumble dryer.

14. Wash your clothes at a lower temperature - say 30° rather than 40° or 60°. It uses much less energy and your clothes still come out sparkling white - unless they were coloured to start with. Save 90kg of CO2 and £15 a year.

15. Buy Green tariff electricity – from only renewable sources. This will reduce your electricity emissions to almost zero and your additional investment will fund further renewable schemes across the UK. Try Ecotricity

Lifestyle Energy Saving Tips – 10% of your Carbon emissions*
Unfortunately it is difficult to calculate these emissions as there are so many variable factors involved, so we haven’t put them on our calculator. However some of the largest savings can be made by making small changes to your lifestyle.

1. Buy Fresh local food. It is tastier and better for you than meat and veg from half the world away - and doesn't have to be flown to you in energy-guzzling airplanes. Ask you retailer where your food has come from. An average family can save up to 4 tonnes of CO2 a year by buying local food.

2. Give up the gym – exercise outside. We spend enough time in air conditioned boxes each day, save money and have more fun in the outdoors.

3. Consume less. Only buy clothes, gadgets and appliances when you need them. Do you really need another £3 T-shirt or phone which does exactly same as the last one?

4. Reuse your plastic bags when shopping.

5. Recycle. Recycle. Recycle. Recycling all your cans, glass, bottles and newspapers rather than throwing them away saves 500kg of CO2 per year.

6. Refill your plastic water bottles. Bottled water is the ultimate convenience as you are essentially paying 1000x as much for packaging, transport and profit over 'eau du tap'. All the energy required to do this in addition to disposing of the bottle of the bottle at the end, adds to your carbon emissions. Save 50kg of CO2 and up to £200 a year.

7. Walk Run or Cycle for short journeys – especially to work. A brisk 20-minute walk will give you a good aerobic work-out, while people who cycle regularly have a fitness level of someone ten years younger.