With energy prices soaring, it’s never been a better time to rethink how you use the appliances in your home to save energy and money. Besides helping your household budget, it will also benefit the planet, reducing CO2 emissions. Here are some helpful tips on how to reduce energy when using your oven, hob, fridge and freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer.
Energy-saving tips when using your oven and hob
- Don’t open the oven to check the cooking process. You will lose heat and humidity and the food will take longer to cook, consuming more energy
- Cook at a lower temperature. It might take longer, but reduces energy consumption by 20% and gives you better food taste and quality
- Take unused accessories out of the oven when cooking – they just consume more energy
- Put your saucepans in the centre of the cooking zone before turning it on. Put the smallest cookware on the smaller zones
- When possible, finish cooking on the hob with the residual heat
Tips for saving energy at home when using your fridge and freezer
- Keep to the recommended temperatures. 4 degrees for the fridge and -18 for the freezer. This secures an ideal balance between keeping food fresh and using the minimum amount of energy
- Avoid putting warm food in the fridge. This makes the fridge work harder to cool down – using more energy
- Don’t keep the door open for too long when deciding what to eat. This allows for the temperature to increase
Energy-saving tips when using your dishwasher
- Use the ECO program when dishwashing. It takes a bit longer, but the dishwasher doesn’t have to work as hard, which means it uses less energy. Compare it to if you run or walk 1km. Running is faster but you need to use a lot more energy. If you walk instead it takes longer, but you use much less energy. The same logic goes for the ECO program
- If you have an hourly electricity rate, do the dishes when the price is at its lowest
- If you have an old dishwasher, it will have a low energy class – you can save energy just by replacing it with a new one
Tips for saving energy at home when using your washing machine
- Run your washing machine when electricity is the cheapest
- Wash bigger loads using the full capacity of your machine instead of several smaller loads
- Wash at lower temperatures. It requires less energy to heat the water to 30 degrees instead of 40 degrees and above. It's enough to wash a garment at 30 degrees for a full clean if it's not heavily stained or dirty
- Set the maximum spin speed allowed on your washing machine programme to minimise the energy needed for tumble drying
Energy-saving tips when using your tumble dryer
- In many houses, hanging clothes to dry indoors increases humidity, which could require MORE heating to keep the temperature in your home stable. Using a modern Heat Pump tumble dryer, especially in wintertime, makes sense
- Use a steam function to refresh your clothes and smooth wrinkles, which also reduces the need to iron and saves energy. There are steam functions available on both washing machines and tumble dryers
- Clean the lint filter regularly to maintain proper airflow and guarantee energy efficiency
