If you’re staying at home more often now, you might realise a surge in your electric bill due to higher consumption of energy. These little-but-goes-a-long-way tips are here to help you conserve energy (and cash!) during this period.
Turn off The lights
We’ve heard it before and here we are again. Switching off the lights when not in use can help significantly decrease electricity use. Try to use natural light when possible during the day, so try out strategically placed mirrors around the room to help you.
Another useful tip when it comes to lighting is the use of LED lights. Swap your current lightbulbs with LED ones as they use far less electricity and last much longer.
Unplug everything
One of the simplest energy-saving tips every home can implement is to unplug appliances that are not in use. Even the smallest gadgets like a hairdryer, video game console, or coffee machine are energy vampires. Many people don’t realize these items are still consuming electricity when they’re plugged in even when not in use.
Take good care of your fridge
In case you didn’t know, your fridge is the most energy-consuming item in your kitchen. So you need to treat it with a lot of care in order to save up on its energy consumption. Make sure its coils are cleaned often. Keeping this practice up will improve your fridge’s efficiency by around 40%.
Also, keeping your fridge and freezer full helps. If there are empty spaces, fill up your fridge with water containers and your freezer with ice bags.
Invest in a plug-in timer switch
A plug-in timer switch is a device that allows you to easily automate electrical appliances. Try it out for items that are left plugged in overnight like your TV or router. Set it up accordingly and you will see how much of a difference it makes to your electric bill.
Wash only when there’s a full load
Only ever start your washing machine with a full load, so be sure to collect all your dirty laundry before hitting that start button. Also, another useful tip is to wash your load with the cold water setting, as you may know heating uses up more energy. Don’t forget to use the energy-saving features if your machine has it, like the “20-minute washâ€Â.
All the other little things
There’s a host of little things that you can do to do as well. For example, make sure all the filters in your appliances are clean, from the vacuum cleaner to water filters and humidifiers. This can improve performance and therefore efficiency.
Try using smaller appliances in the kitchen such as a slow cooker, microwave or toaster oven. They lead to significant energy savings as they use up half the energy of the average oven over the same cooking time.
Go easy on that air-conditioner as this appliance consumes a huge amount of energy which contributes to that high electric bill. Remember to service it regularly to ensure that it’s running efficiently and in turn, your room or home will get cold faster, which means it’ll reduce energy consumption.
