Tips to make you feel electric (by using less)

The world's electricity demand is growing fast. Most of our electricity is produced in traditional power plants, although other resources such as wind turbines are starting to make their mark on electricity generation. Power plants can use coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power, or other sources to power turbines. These turbines are magnets spinning within copper wires, producing a flow of electrons (charged particles) within the wire, or what we more commonly know as electricity.

So...how is this bad for the environment?

Power plants that use fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) release pollution into the atmosphere, which includes large amounts of CO2, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Accelerated levels of global warming can lead to changes in sea levels, less habitable environments for certain species, and a higher occurrence of freak weather events - just to name a few! It's therefore really important to try and reduce our carbon footprint and therefore our energy usage, so please read on.

To kick off the series of blog posts, I’m first going to be talking about tips and tricks to cut down on your electricity usage. Who doesn’t like lower bills, right?!

#1 Turn OFF, not standby

This is an age-old tip that a surprising number of people don’t do. Having all your appliances on standby for 18 hours a day can add at least £30 a year to your electricity bill, and waste lots of energy according to the Energy Saving Trust. It’s therefore much more efficient to turn things off at the plug if you’re not using them. If you’re worried about something like not being bothered to get up and turn on the TV every time you want to watch it, try permanently keeping the TV remote by the TV itself when it’s off. Then you’ll have to get up to collect the remote, and can turn on the TV at the same time.

#2 Air dry, not tumble dry

The average tumble dryer on the market will cost £50-60 per year to run. In the summer whilst the weather is warmer, hang your clothes outdoors if you have an outdoor line, or over a clothes rack indoors where it will likely dry quite quickly. If you have an airing cupboard, this is also a great space to dry clothes! Always bear in mind that it is wise to keep windows ajar if you’re air drying clothes to keep condensation from occurring. A few other options include:

• Putting your wet clothes on for an extra spin in the washing machine before drying them further to reduce drying time.

• Separating clothes when putting them in the dryer (rather than putting them in tangled) will allow the air to circulate better and result in more even drying.

• Clean the lint filter after every cycle.

Perhaps I don’t use it correctly, but I’ve always found I have a substantially lower amount of ironing when I air dry compared to using a tumble dryer.

#3 Shorter showers

Do you know how much your long showers are costing? Decreasing your shower time by even 1 minute per shower can save £12 per year, with most of this cost coming off your electricity bill. Try out the calculator below to see how much your shower is costing you.

Cutting down on shower times can seem hard – showers are pretty relaxing, and it takes time to have a good wash. Try thinking of how you could optimise your shower routine; how about washing out conditioner whilst you’re putting soap or shower gel on the rest of your body? Or if you know your shower won’t change temperature too much, turn the water off whilst you’re putting on the shampoo. You can buy handy little shower timers for only a couple of pounds (e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shower-Timer-Simple-minute-shower/dp/B00JYL2C2A) which are really handy to make sure you keep your showers short, and it even adds a competitive element to your showers to see if you can beat your own record!

#4 Lights

On average, 15% of your electricity bill goes towards lighting. If you don’t already have them, try energy saving bulbs when you next need to buy a few more light bulbs. Switching may be able to save £7 per bulb per year. If you have a cupboard full of old traditional lightbulbs that is making you more reluctant to do this because you don’t want to waste any, how about donating them to a homeless shelter, housing association, or food banks so you know they’ll still get used? Have a look around your home and see where you could make changes to your lighting. For example is there anywhere else you could use a lamp in place of your main light? This will bring the most savings where the main light has more than one bulb, as long as the lighting is appropriate for the task you’re doing.

#5 Green Energy companies

When it comes to renewing your energy bills, if they're some of the cheapest options why not try out companies that get their energy from green sources, such as So Energy, or Green Energy Network, to name a few. Be sure to check out customer and/or Which? reviews before switching to a new company. Some of these companies will even allow you to vote for which green energy source you would like to see your electricity coming from! Switching to one of these firms may save you money compared to your current tariff and will make you feel good too.

You've probably come across most of these tips already, but hopefully this blog post highlights how you can save money and electricity alongside helping the environment. Future posts will deal with toiletries, energy saving tips in the kitchen, environmentally friendly gardening tips, and many more. Don't forget to also check out the myth busting page!