5 ways to save energy in the home – Hints & Tips!

Use an unsecured loan from Loans 2 Go for your home improvements to improve your energy efficiency…

We are now enjoying the long days of summer; doors and windows are open and light and warmth flood our homes.  Bliss!  

But spare a thought for the colder, darker months when we rely more on energy for that same light and warmth.  Are there things that we can do to conserve energy?  Things that we can perhaps put into place now, in summer, ready for the darker months ahead?

Let’s look at five areas where we can save energy in the home.

• Heating

It is possible to stay warm but cut costs.  In the colder months, keeping your heating turned on constantly on a low heat setting is more economical than switching it on only periodically and blasting out the heat, as this keeps your home at a consistently warm temperature without the energy boost of restarting your heating.

When you do have your heating on keep it lower than perhaps you are used to:  turning your thermostat down by just 1°C can save money.  It is worth spending time getting to understand the timer settings on your thermostat – or perhaps investing in remote control central heating that you can control any time from a phone app.  

Finally, don’t automatically turn up the heating if you are cold but put on another layer of clothing or bedding instead and keep warm for less!

• Cooking

Try and cook food in batches so that if the oven is going to be on you cook various meals at the same time.  Extra food can be frozen for later.  Incidentally this is also a really good way of making sure that you use up all the ingredients and don’t end up throwing away leftovers.  

It is not usually necessary to preheat the oven: in fact, you can lose a lot of energy by opening a pre-heated oven to put food in.

Also, be careful to use the optimal oven settings – don’t overheat and waste energy.  Lots of meals taste better if they have been cooked longer at a low temperature.   In fact, in many cases you can turn off the oven earlier and let the cooking finish with the residual heat from the oven.   

Alternatively, once you have finished cooking in the oven leave the oven door open to let the heat warm your kitchen and let you turn down your thermostat for a while.  

You can also save energy on your hob by using the right-sized pan and ring.  Use small pans and rings for small meals, and if you are using a larger pan for a larger meal then make sure you use a larger ring to reduce heating time.

• Water and washing

Most of us expect showers to use less energy than baths and normally this is the case but keep an eye on the pressure if you have a power shower.   If the pressure is at its highest it can use just as much water as a bath, so sometimes you may want to turn the pressure down to save energy.   

When using the washing machine be aware that 90% of a washing machine’s energy expenditure is spent on heating the water, so wash your clothes at a low temperature – 30-40 °C – to save money.  

Try to hang laundry to dry rather than tumble drying it, but if you do use a dryer then take your clothes out before they’re completely dry – this not only saves energy but they will also iron much quicker.

When using the dishwasher don’t waste water by pre-rinsing dishes, just scrape them and put them in.

• Appliances

The golden rule is switch off and save.  If you leave a room and aren’t immediately going to return, then get into the habit of switching off the lights.   

Make sure you unplug any appliances that you aren’t using regularly and don’t leave appliances on standby: a small amount of energy is still being used unless appliances are turned off at the socket.  

Treat appliances with respect so that they work at their best for you.  For example, keep your fridge and freezer full so that they don’t have to work as hard and use up energy.  Empty space in your fridge or freezer wastes energy because every time you open the fridge door, cold air escapes and warm air comes in, and your fridge has to cool things down again.   A full fridge has less air space and therefore less cold air to be exchanged with the warm air from your kitchen.  

Keeping your freezer full is also helpful in the case where you lose power.  A full freezer will hold food safely for up to 48 hours – twice as long as a partially filled freezer.

For both fridges and freezers, you can fill up space with water if you do not have enough to fill them.  Jugs of water in fridges or plastic bags of water in freezers will work wonders!  

• Be efficient with your whole home

It is worth looking at the bigger picture in terms of energy conservation for your home.  Depending on the nature of your home – and what has already been done – you may want to consider cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, or solar panels.  Some of these measures have energy-saving grants available to help with the cost of home improvements.

There may be other home improvements that you want to do to save energy – for example double-glazing or replacement windows or doors, or even more energy efficient appliances.  It can be worth investing in such improvements because they will save you a lot of money in the longer term. Taking out a small unsecured loan now to make the changes in time for winter could reduce your energy bills significantly, giving you more money for – dare we say it – Christmas!

If you do decide to make some changes to your home to improve its energy efficiency, then why not talk to Loans 2 Go about an unsecured loan?   If your application is accepted, we can offer you up to £1000 and you can have your money the same day – so you can start your energy saving plans right away!