What with buying gifts, decorating your home, and preparing for Christmas dinner or a New Year’s Eve party, you certainly don’t need another thing to spend your hard-earned money on. Christmas isn’t exactly the greenest time of year but, by making a few changes to your energy habits, you can make it more eco-friendly and improve your home’s energy efficiency in the process.
Since it’s the season of giving, here are some of UK Energy Management (NE) Ltd’s top tips to help you save energy this holiday season, so that you can keep your energy bills low without losing any of the festive joy.
Turn down your thermostat
You don’t have to sacrifice warmth when trying to save energy. Turning down your thermostat by just 1℃ could reduce your heating bills by up to £80 per year. Another estimate suggests that you can save around 3% on your heating bill for every degree you turn down your thermostat. These tiny changes will probably go unnoticed by your Christmas guests, but could save you a fair amount of energy and money.
To make sure everyone stays cosy, keep the curtains closed in the evening, wrap up in those warm festive jumpers, and consider fitting reflective panels behind your radiators. These can reflect back up to 95% of the heat coming from behind your radiator, making your room much warmer.
Switch to LED lights
Christmas lights are a must, whether they’re decorating your tree, dotted around the house, or adorning your home’s exterior for the whole street to enjoy. That being said, you can save energy by only having these lights on at optimum times – there’s no point having all your decorations lit up during the daytime, when the sun is still out. Only having your lights on in the evening will save energy and keep your electric bills affordable.
There are also plenty of options for energy-efficient Christmas lights, like replacing your old incandescent ones with LEDs or buying timed lights that turn on and off automatically. Admittedly, these types of lights are more expensive initially, but in the long-term they will help to save you money.
Turn off appliances
With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas – especially Christmas Day itself – it’s all too tempting to forget about the practical things. We’ve all had to resist the urge to just go to bed and “sort it all out in the morning”! If you want to save energy this Christmas, it’s important you turn off any appliances that don’t need to be on when not in use. This includes things like Christmas lights, televisions, fireplaces, and even any new electronic gifts that are charging in the corner of the room.
If you need any assistance with your energy bills, at Christmas or any other time of year, look no further than UK Energy Management (NE) Ltd. We are a national organisation dedicated to helping people across the UK access energy-related grants and secure the financial support they need. Our experienced technicians will be happy to install all the necessary upgrades to keep your home at the perfect temperature all year round. For more information on how we can help you, or to check your eligibility for a grant or scheme, visit our website or contact us today.
