The rising cost of energy, alongside the impact of excessive energy consumption on the environment, has been a hot topic for some time. That’s why initiatives such as the Big Energy Saving Week have been set up. This week-long event encourages people to take control of their energy usage and make informed decisions about their actions.
For 2024, Big Energy Saving Week is taking place from January 17th to January 23rd. Here are Rumage.com ideas on easy ways to make saving during this week, that will hopefully be straightforward enough to carry on throughout the rest of the year.
Turn off lights when not in use
This may seem obvious but it’s amazing how many of us still don’t routinely do this. Energy Saving Trust reports this can save you around £25 per year on your annual energy bills. Adding to this, if you haven’t already, changing over to LED bulbs can make further savings. LED bulbs are more efficient, so they use less energy to deliver the same lighting levels.
Turn down your heating by 1 degree
While it is difficult to turn down the heating in the cold winter months, taking it down by just 1 degree can make a big difference to how much energy you are consuming. This has been well-documented by energy saving experts as a way to help you save money and be kinder on the environment.
Be sure your dishwasher is full before running it
To reduce the amount of water you use, and the frequency of cycles which use electricity each time, only run your dishwasher when it is full. You might only save one or two cycles a week, but as with most energy saving activities, smaller actions build together to have a bigger impact.
Don’t charge your phone overnight
The average mobile phone takes around 3 hours to charge, so if you leave it to charge overnight you could be wasting hours of unneeded energy. It is better to recharge your phone during the day and unplug it once the battery is full. And, if you can, turn off your phone when you are charging it as the less power your device uses, the faster it will top up the battery.
To support the aims of the Big Energy Saving Week be sure to share your top tips for saving energy with your friends and family. The more little steps we all take, collectively this can make a big difference to wasted energy and damage to the planet.
And, we all get a few more pounds in our pocket for 2024, which you could use to treat yourself to something. For extra eco-points, shop pre-loved from the comfort of your home – using Rumage.com allows you to search online for any item, across multiple second-hand retailers all at once.