You may have noticed if you ventured outside or you have taken a ride on the London Underground that Summer is now very much upon us, so in this blog I want to tell you a few ways you can increase the comfort of your home (i.e. keep it cooler) by being more energy efficient.
- The first and easiest way is to turn off any incandescent light bulbs you have in the home. They produce light as a result of electricity passing through a filament wire causing it to reach an extremely high temperature (causing it to glow white). Incandescent bulbs actually only convert about 5% of the electricity into light with the rest given off as heat, so some people actually use these bulbs as heaters – so a simple one to start, keep them turned off – or better still replace them altogether with LEDs (which use 90% less energy so will start saving you cash). This also goes for halogen bulbs, which also emit lots of heat.
- Try to minimise the use of dishwashers and washing machines – they are great and make life very easy but they too kick out a lot of heat, so if you are going to use them – do so late at night or early in the morning.
- You won’t need your shower as warm in the summer and also people tend to have less baths (opting instead for showers), so turn the thermostat down on your hot water tank / boiler, which will mean you use less gas to heat the water, which helps save you money.
- Standing over an oven or a hob during the summer is pretty uncomfortable, and this heat will radiate around your kitchen and other rooms. Microwave instead of using the oven if you can (maybe even fire up the BBQ). People generally go for lighter meals in the hot weather anyway, so if you can avoid the oven.
- Open windows where you can to try to generate a through breeze. It’s amazing how a couple of well positioned opened windows can create a lovely through breeze.
- Curtains and blinds block sunlight entering the home, so they can be used to keep rooms cool in summer, especially in south facing rooms. You can still have the windows open to create that breeze, but keeping the sun out will help make the room cooler.
- Insulation stops warm air entering the home. So loft insulation or cavity wall insulation won’t just help keep out the cold in winter, it will also help keep the home from warming up too quickly during the heat of the day as well!
- Avoid repeatedly and unnecessarily opening refrigerators and freezers. In fact, the more you work your appliances, the more heat you will generate.
- Don’t leave computers on standby. It is amazing how much heat they will give out, trying to keep cool, particularly in the summer when the fans have to work extra hard to kick out the heat.
- Get outside! It may seem obvious, but the best thing to do is spend more time outside, which means you can turn off appliances in the home. You can even take your work out into the garden (if you have a half decent boss!)
So there you have it – our top ten ways to use less energy in the summer and in doing so help keep your home cooler. If you have any tips – let us know in the comments below!
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