The other day I was reading some articles on simple ways to make a home more energy efficient. The articles mentioned euros and pence so I had to do some quick math and take my calculator out. I went ahead and did the math of what it would take to save $50/year from following these 3 simple steps. Don’t worry, these are things you can do in just 10 minutes and won’t need to spend any money but begin to save.
Leaving appliances on standby and your phone charge always turned on quietly drains energy increasing your bills. If possible, turn off any appliances and phone chargers when they’re not in use. Stop leaving phones on charge overnight! They only take one hour to charge. If you want them to charge quicker than that, put them on flight mode or turn them off.
Wait until your dishwasher is completely full before running it. Regardless of how full it is, your dishwasher will use the same amount of energy. The same is also true for washing machines (bonus tip!). It’s also worth avoiding pre-rinsing dishes as this is a waste of both time and energy. So don’t bother with this step and put your dishes directly in the dishwasher.
Washing with cold water allows you to avoid using your hot water heater while doing laundry and making sure the lint trap is clean will make it run more efficiently.
Unsurprisingly, changing multiple habits no matter how tiny the change is can have a massive effect and help you to improve your home’s energy efficiency.
Even something as silly as unplugging chargers, skipping the pre-rinse and wash full loads of laundry quickly adds to. So consider how you can change these habits.
