7 tips to save energy at home during the covid-19 pandemic

Energy use at home pretty much follows the same pattern in all households in Ireland. The greatest energy use amounting to over 30% is used  heating our homes. The next 20% is on water heating. Then lighting followed by refrigeration, appliances, cooking etc.

During the current crises for families where both parents are working and the kids are at school there will be a considerable increase in the home energy bills. But there are ways of keeping control of your energy costs.

7 Tips to save energy at home!

1. Thankfully the weather has been kind to us over the first weeks of this Covid-19 lock down. So bearing in mind the largest energy use is home heating, why not add a few layers to our clothing instead of turning up the heating. Clothing layers can be added and removed as the day-time temperature change.
2. Taking showers rather than baths use much less water. Taking short timed showers makes for even greater water and energy savings. Remember long showers waste not only water but expensively heated water. Plus. Adding flow restrictors to taps is a simple cost effective way of saving hot and cold water.
3. Today’s kitchens and living rooms tend to have multiple lighting fixtures in the form of spot lights and wall lamps. One traditional 50 watt spot light might look exactly the same as a 5 watt LED to the undiscerning eye but it will use 10 times more energy. Appreciate that the shops are closed today so changing light bulbs is not a current option, but turning them off is.
4. We are not used to been energy aware when cooking so here’s some tips.
   • Use the right size pot for the heating ring size.
   • Always use pot lids.
   • Avoid pre-heating where possible
   • Try to double up cooking foods when using the over
   • Never leave cookers on standby mode
5. Tumble dryers are one of the homes greatest energy users. Where possible use outside drying
6. Try turning of all stand-by switches as these phantom energy loads can use an exorbitant amount of energy. Consider that little red light on a stereo system that may never get turned off. It might be only using 1watt of energy per hour, hardly worth bothering about, but there are 8,765 hours in a year. Hence that little red light will use 8,765 watts in a year. If you have 10 of these between phone chargers, TV’s, radios, modems etc that could be 87,650 watts. (the measure of 1 unit of electricity is 1kW or 1,000 watts)
7. Energy monitors are one of the simplest and yet cleverest ways of helping us to save energy. Why? Because they make energy visible.

For as little as €60 you can purchase an energy monitor and install it yourself. These little devices are so clever that they give real time energy use in the home.

Do you need help and support understand your energy use? If so contact us at info@myecohub.ie or call Paul O Reilly on 086 2568544. For more information on saving energy at home Check out Paul’s book Watt Footprint on www.myecohub.com