SWITCH OFF / TURN DOWN / TURN OFF DAY

The Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Saving Week reminds us of several measures that we should think about in our home to save our carbon dioxide emissions and our pockets but Energy Saving Week also reminds us that we can save energy and make a difference by doing really some simple measures too.  

Some of these low-cost or no cost measures include:

Switching our appliances off standby - the average house can save £33 a year by turning things off rather than leaving them on standby. Households in the UK now spend up to 8% of their electricity bill on standby power which across the UK is equivalent to the annual output of about two and a half 700MW power stations.

Turn down - Reducing your heating thermostat by 1°C when you are too warm can cut up to 10% off your heating costs. For a gas-heated, three-bed semi-detached property, this could work out at a saving of around £55 a year. The thermostat on your hot water tank should be set to 60° C or 140° F - it is not necessary to set it higher than this.

Turn off - Remember to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth - a running tap wastes over 6 litres per minute. if the entire adult population of England and Wales remembered to do this, we could save 180 mega litres a day - enough to supply nearly 500,000 homes. 

For more handy tips that don’t need to cost you the earth but can help save the planet visit www.energysavingtrust.org.uk