Summer is the right around the corner, so it’s a good time to check your energy-draining winter devices.
Switching off appliances around your home is one of the easiest ways to cut energy costs and May usually marks a turning point in the weather as temperature start to rise and the evenings get lighter.
It means you can turn off gadgets that you keep on over winter, some of which you may have forgotten about. Ben Gallizzi, an energy expert at Uswitch suggests a quick check and reaching for the off switch could save you as much as £612.90
Turn off the heating
As temperature rises, you should find that you’re using your heating less and less each day. Ben says that if your thermostat is set to be on 24hours a day, you may find that the heating kicks in when the temperature drops in the middle of the night. This can mean that you end up spending money on heating when everyone in the home is asleep. You may have forgotten that your thermostat is on this setting if you adjusted it way back at the start of the winter, so it’s worth checking.
Uswitch estimates that the average household with gas central heating spends about £423 on heating in January, February and March. This falls £212 for April, May and June and drops to almost nothing in July, August and September.
Turn off any plug-in heaters.
Electric heaters can be useful way of making room a little warmer in the winter. Some of them also come with timers you can set when they come on. If your gadgets do, then it’s time to give the settings a tweak. Plug-in electric use between 2kW and 3kW of energy, costing between 66p and 99p for every hour they use. If you used a 3kW electric heater for three months hours for three months, this would cost you a whopping £62.10
Turn of the tumble dryer
It’s easy to get into the habit of putting your wet laundry into the machine over the winter, but spring and summer are the best times to find alternatives to using the tumble dryer. The arrival of warmer weather is a good opportunity to turn off your dryer and hang clothes to dry outside for free.
Check if you still need your dehumidifier
Dehumidifiers can help speed up your drying time. While also reducing the amount of moisture and condensation created by drying clothes indoors.
However, you may not need it as often during the summer months when you can open the windows to ventilate your home instead. Switching off your dehumidifier for three months over the summer could save you £10.80.
Take your lamps off a timer
During the dark winter months, lots of households chose to put their lights on a timer for security reasons. As the days get longer, it’s worth checking these settings to see if your lights are coming on earlier than they need to. LED blubs are incredibly energy efficient, so the daily savings from turning the lamp off when it’s not needed will be small-but they all add up. A 35watt blub, for example could cost 7p if used for six hours- costing £2.17 over a month.