We thought it might be a good idea to do a blog post on how to be more gas efficient, as let’s be honest, who doesn’t love saving money? Take a look at our top tips to help you become more gas efficient, save money, and help the environment all in one go. It’s a win, win, win!
1. Air Dry
Air drying might sound simple but it’s actually incredibly effective. Air dry your dishes instead of using a drying cycle on your dishwasher. Simply open the door after the rinse cycle and allow air to get to your dishes and dry them out. It might be worth running your dishwasher in the evening so your dishes can dry overnight. You’ll wake up to bone dry dishes along with the warm fuzzy feeling that you’ve done something efficient! Doing this can cut dishwasher energy use up to 50%. This works the same for clothes drying. Hang your washing up instead of putting your wet clothes in the tumble dryer. If it’s a nice day, hang them outside and let Mother Nature take control.
2. Low Flow Showerheads
Be more efficient by installing low-flow showerheads. This will save you bucket loads of water (literally!). It’s a good idea to select a showerhead with flow rate of less than 2.5gpm. Showers take energy to heat the water, thus cutting down on water usage also cuts down on energy usage!
3. Change your Bulbs
Try and use LED bulbs. LED lights are up to 80% more efficient than traditional lighting such as fluorescent and incandescent lights. Unlike other bulbs, 95% of the energy in LEDs is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat. Less energy use reduces the demand from power plants and decreases greenhouse gas emissions, so you’re doing good for the environment too!
4. Turn off Lights
Make sure you get into the habit of turning off incandescent lights when you are not in the room, as 90% of the energy they use is given off as heat, and only about 10% actually results in light. The light bulb that saves the most energy is always going to be the light bulb that is not humming. Building the habit of turning off lights when you are not using them may take some time to get used to, but the savings in energy and money will make the habit worth it!
5. Programmable Thermostat
Install a programmable thermostat to lower utility bills and manage your heating and cooling systems efficiently. Even turning your thermostat back 10 degrees for 8 hours can save 5%-15% a year on your heating bill. You could schedule the thermostat to decrease whilst you sleep, so you might not even notice the temperature drop! Another benefit of programmable thermostats is that you can adjust the temperature to the exact point of your own personal comfort.
6. Use your Microwave
Try to use microwaves or toaster ovens to cook or warm leftovers as you’ll most definitely use less energy than cooking with a conventional oven. For example, five minute usage of a typical microwave (800W, category E) will use about 0.09kWh of electricity, costing around 1.3p, while the typical gas consumption each time a gas hob is used is 0.9kWh, costing around 3.8p, so it really does make a difference!
7. Take short Showers
Quite simply, take shorter showers! A typical shower head gives out an average of 2.5 gallons per minute. Reducing your shower time even by just 4 minutes per day may save 3650 gallons annually if you shower once a day!
8. Unplug your Chargers
Be sure to unplug chargers when the device is fully charged, or the chargers are not in use. Many chargers that are still plugged in at the wall and not switched off at the socket will draw power continuously, even when the device is not plugged into the charger. Considering how often we tend to be charging one device or another, this is an important one to take note of!
We hope you’ve found this post helpful, and again, if you have any questions at all, please get in touch. We love hearing from you and are always happy to help!
