Simple, quick changes to your home or behaviour to reduce your carbon footprint and/or energy bills advice to help you maximise what you have, such as:
• Help with programmers and timers
• Planning you heating routine
• Setting and position of your thermostats
Current advice is to stay with your provider - if you have to change then check rates carefully - unusually fixed term rates may be higher than variable rates (which may be less well signposted)
• Review of tariffs
• Using a cost checking site
• Exploring other companies
• Turning standby switches off
• Only filling the kettle with as much water as you need
• Switching off lights when not in use
• Turning room thermostats down by 1 degree C
• Replacing light bulbs with LED (see our info on the Bulb Bank)
• Use thick curtains & close them before it gets dark
• Stopping draughts
• Putting in secondary double glazing
• Washing clothes on a lower temperature & when there’s a full load
• Drying clothes outside when possible
• Harnessing the sun’s warmth - solar gain / passive heating
• Put lids on pots when cooking (reduces condensation)
• Check behind cupboards etc for damp patches
• If drying clothes indoors try to keep them all in the same room with the door closed
• Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you need
• Switch off the kettle at the wall (most kettles have a standby function which costs £4 a year when left switched on)
• Switch off all appliances which have standby switches
• Use thick curtains (the Thrift Shop often has them, and we have a team of volunteers who can adjust them for you if necessary)
• Close curtains before its gets dark (ie before the temperature suddenly drops)
• Use LED light bulbs in the rooms you use the most
• Switch off lights when you're not using them
• Use a 'sausage dog' draught excluder or rolled up blanket under doors with draughts
• Stop other draughts (NOT intended ventilation such as trickle vents in windows or ventilation bricks - a house still needs to breathe to allow damp out)
