Tag: energy efficiency

Simple solutions for reducing your summer home energy use

Simple solutions for reducing your summer home energy use

The heat of summer is fast approaching, and many people are already preparing for long days in the garden, family trips to the beach, and shopping for new seasonal clothes. Most people look forward to the warmer months of the year – due largely to the increased daylight and more opportunities for outdoor activity.

Summer doesn’t come without its drawbacks, though. Especially if you’re a home-owner, summer can be frustratingly hot, requiring you to use more energy to stay cool. The result: more expensive energy and utility costs. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the reality permanently.

Many home-owners aren’t aware of simple solutions they can take to minimise energy usage around the home during the hottest months of the year. To help our readers out, we’re going to look at a few simple changes anybody can make to reduce how much energy is used – and wasted – during the summer.

Grey buttoned sofa in front of white curtains

Install reflective curtains

One of the biggest ways homes absorb heat during the summer is through the windows. Whether it be due to dark curtains or no curtains at all, heat and light enter, get absorbed, and ultimately increase the ambient temperature. This results in your air conditioning having to run that much more to compensate.

Through the use of made to measure curtains, you can ensure that your windows are properly framed without excessive overhang or exposed areas where light can enter. By purchasing made to measure curtains that are either directly reflective or made with a white lining, you’ll reflect that excess heat back and away from the home.

Some estimates suggest that utilising white plastic-backed curtains can reduce home heat intake during the summer by as much as one-third. That’s a lot of heat that your home can be guarded against with the right curtain selection.

Nest Thermostatcredit

Purchase a smart thermostat

We all love to have control over our heating and cooling preferences, but what if you’re currently wasting tons of energy during the summer because of those preferences? Nobody wants to wake up or come home from work to a hot house, so if you have an air conditioning system installed, it can be tempting to leave it running.

Fortunately, technology has given us affordable options in this regard. There are many unique programmable and/or smart thermostats on the market to help home-owners manage cooling (and heating) schedules in the home during all hours of the day.

Smart thermostats can be used to access the thermostat from anywhere using a mobile device. Some even can detect when you’re nearing the house and will automatically kick on in advance of your arrival. Programmable thermostats are a much more budget-friendly option (many are available for as little as £25) that accomplish most of what a smart thermostat does but doesn’t allow for remote interaction.

Black metal oscillating fan on a vintage sideboard

Increase in-home ventilation

Especially during the summer, the air in our homes can become stagnant and humid, making even relatively mild temperatures feel miserable. Without a great ventilation system – as well as auxiliary ventilation options – the home can feel like a nightmare both day and night.

One easy and cheap way to improve ventilation in the home during the summer is to add a variety of fans to the home. Whether they be traditional box fans, ceiling fans or desk fans is entirely up to you, but most options are easy to set up and inexpensive for a seasonal solution.

The reason more ventilation is a great idea for saving energy is that proper ventilation via fans can allow you to raise the thermostat by 2ºC without any reduction in comfort.

Smoking screw-in light bulb

Remove unnecessary heat sources

There are many sources of heat around the home that can add to energy costs during the summer months. While not every source of heat can be eliminated, you can improve the situation and minimise how much heat is being generated from inside the home.

Traditional light bulbs, for instance, give off quite a bit of heat. By investing in LED variants, you’ll use a fraction of the energy and emit virtually no heat whatsoever. Many people love to cook during the summer months, but energy-savvy home-owners know that using the stove (instead of the oven) is a better choice, as it emits far less heat when preparing meals.

Even the heat from your water heater can add up over time. Many people turn down the thermostats on water heaters to reduce overall energy consumption, but a secondary effect is that it will also emit less ambient heat into the air.

With summer fast approaching, you want to be ready to deal with the heat. However, you shouldn’t have to spend tons of money on cooling costs to maintain a comfortable climate. With these tips, you can drastically reduce the cost of cooling your home with relatively little work or investment – and these investments will continue to produce results year after year!

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How to reduce your utility bills

How to reduce your utility bills

When it comes to keeping your home warm, particularly during the colder months, your utility bills can become a real drain on your finances. It can be tricky to keep a budget in place, and save money on your bills without compromising on the quality of your home life.

With the blustery weather outside, we thought we’d pull together this post on how to save money on your utility bills. Our top tips can help you orchestrate a happy home that’s not just cosy and welcoming, but energy efficient too.

Red standby button off

Change-up your routine

We all know how easy it is to lose track of how much energy we may be wasting, but one quick-fix is to make energy efficiency a part of your daily routine. For example, get into the habit of switching the lights off in a room as you leave and always avoid leaving devices on standby. As well as this, make sure your dishwasher is stacked and full before turning it on, and set your washing machine to a shorter, cooler cycle. Habits like this may seem small, but the savings soon add up.

White radiator

Bleed your radiators

When pockets of air get trapped in your radiators, heating up your home can become much more difficult. Trapped air means you need to keep your heating on for much longer to feel the same results. When you bleed your radiator, you release the air that’s trapped inside and heat can travel through the radiators with ease, thus keeping your home warmer. Bleed your radiators to benefit from lower energy bills.

LED bulb on a black background

Make the switch to LED bulbs

Traditional halogen bulbs have long been the go-to bulb for home-owners. However, increasingly, people are growing wise to their inefficiency. LED light bulbs use 90% less energy than halogen alternatives, and come in a range of colour temperatures and designs. Investing in LED bulbs for your home can see you reduce your utility bills significantly.

Grey radiator on a yellow wall

Add foil to the back of your radiators

The heat from radiators often escapes through the back, only to get absorbed by the walls. To avoid this, and make the most of the heat, add foil to the back of your radiators. This will reflect the heat back into the room, giving you more warmth for your money!

Blankets and cushions on a sofa

Layer up

An old energy saving hack, but still as effective as ever. Instead of turning up your heating at the drop of a hat, add on an extra layer or two or get cuddled up under a blanket. Regularly getting into this habit, as well as encouraging the rest of the household do so too, can help to keep your energy bills under control.

Running an energy efficient home can be a real challenge, particularly when you’ve had a long day out in the cold! However, having to sacrifice luxuries to save on your bills is a long-standing misconception. Small compromises and healthy habits are all you need to keep your utility bills under control.

We hope you’ve found our post useful, and you are keeping warm during the cold weather. What are your energy efficiency hacks? Get in touch and let us know!

The information above was provided by the team at online electrical wholesalers, The Electrical Guys

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Energy efficient options for cooling your home

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Living room cooled by a ceiling fancredit

Staying cool in your home does not have to mean watching your energy bills sky-rocket or cringing over your carbon footprint. Depending on the climate in your location, around 20-50% of your energy usage will go towards cooling your home, accounting for around 5-15% of your carbon footprint. If you’re looking for new and innovative ways to stay cool whilst cutting back on energy consumption, we’ve put together a list of ideas that you might find useful.

Man wetting his face with a shower headcredit

Personal cooling alternatives

Keeping our bodies cool is usually the main reason for wanting to cool a home, however it’s important to realise that keeping your body cool does not necessarily mean that you need to cool the whole area around you.

  • Ceiling fans – Installing ceiling fans and ensuring that they are set to circulate in the right direction to keep the air cool in the area is an energy efficient option. It’s a well known fact that a good ceiling fan can help you feel up to five degrees cooler in warm weather.
  • Take cool showers – Rather than turning on the air conditioning, it’s a good alternative to take a cool shower in the evening or late afternoon in order to cool your body down when it needs it the most.
  • Peppermint essential oil– Peppermint essential oil can be very effective to cool the skin when sprayed directly, however it’s recommended that you avoid using it near the eyes.

Home cinema with drawn curtainscredit

Indoor home cooling

  • Check for drafts – To help seal the cold air in, you can apply weather-stripping, silicone caulking or foam sealant to doors and windows relatively cheaply. Insulating any electric switches or outlets, attic doors or crawl spaces is also effective.
  • Solar attic fans – Installing a solar attic fan will help to cool the hot air in the space, making it easier to cool the home and resulting in your home energy bill being up to 10% cheaper per year.
  • Increase insulation – Increasing the insulation in your attic, keeping your walls well insulated and installing double-glazed windows will all help to save energy by trapping more cold air indoors.
  • Close curtains – Keeping curtains closed can help to deflect sunlight and keep the room cool.
  • Use alternative cooking methods – Using the oven or stove in the afternoon or evening should be avoided as this can greatly increase the level of heat in the home.

Garden with rectangular shaped pruned treescredit

Outdoor home cooling

  • Plant trees – Planting native, deciduous trees will provide a shade for your home from the hot summer sun. In the winter, they will also serve as a solar heating option for your home when they shed their leaves.
  • Solar screens – Using solar screens on the outside of windows can make a large difference, and are definitely worth investing in. They are also removable, meaning that you can take them down in winter.

Air conditioned living roomcredit

Energy efficient air conditioning use

Although every effort can be made to cool yourself and your home without switching on the air conditioning system, there’ll be times where eliminating using the air conditioning may be impossible. Knowing how to use your air conditioning wisely is important to be energy efficient and get the most out of your efforts to keep your home cool.

  • Exhaust other options – Before turning on the air conditioning it’s important to make sure that you’ve tried every other possible method to cool your home.
  • Consider a small evaporative cooler – These use water blown through wet pads in order to cool the air.
  • Maintain regularly – Annual, proper maintenance of your air conditioning unit is essential in order to be energy efficient.
  • Replace old models – If your air conditioning system is over ten years old, investing in a newer, more energy efficient model can result in halving your energy consumption.
  • Keep it clean – Ensuring that the area around the outside compressor unit is clean will increase air circulation and provide more efficient home cooling.
  • Check air ducts – Climb into your crawl spaces to check for any drafts coming from the air ducts, as insulating them will decrease the loss of cool air and increase energy efficiency.
  • Close doors – Closing the doors around your house will help to keep the cool air trapped inside each room, especially if you have a two-storey home or high or vaulted ceilings. However, you should also consider your thermostat placement in order to avoid inaccurate temperature gauging.

Have you got any great tips for home cooling that you’d like to share with us and other readers? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

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