Saving energy at home when you’re away

Summer holidays can mean different things to different people—from a relaxing break to an exotic adventure—but when it comes to your home, it means a big reduction in energy usage.

When you go away, whether that’s for a few days or a few weeks, your appliances, devices, and lighting will obviously lie dormant until you return. However, your heating, plugged-in items, and more could still be using energy during this time, if you’re not careful to adjust it or turn them off completely.

This article is a quick, handy guide for how to make sure your home isn’t using more energy than it takes to maintain itself while you’re not using it (and achieve an even more zen state of mind!).

 

Be careful of vampire power

 

When we talk about vampire power, we’re not talking about ghoulish monsters sucking your electricity away. Instead, this is when your device is turned off, but plugged in so that’s still using a small amount of electricity consistently. Why does this happen? Well, modern devices are lying in wait to jump into action when needed. They will also perform updates. Therefore, they constantly eat up a small amount of energy to power this responsiveness. Therefore, the advice is easy; unplug as many devices as you can in your home before you leave for your holiday.

It is highly unlikely that pulling the plugs out on one or two of your devices will make much of a difference. However, if you leave the whole house plugged in, it will cause a drain on your energy.

For those items, you need to keep plugged in, try using a smart power strip that will prevent this phantom draw on your energy. These smart power strips are also known as advanced power strips, and some allow you to time when electricity is drawn into the device and not. 

A checklist of items to pull the plug on include PCs and any display screen, printers, satellite TV boxes, music devices, TVs, microwaves, video game consoles, amongst others. Your toaster and microwave alone will make a decent amount of difference. For some of these devices, the amount of electricity used by the devices is similar, whether on or off.

 

Use a smart thermostat and reset the schedule

 

A smart thermostat allows you to set the temperature for each room and on a schedule that suits you. Whether you are away on holiday or not, a smart thermostat will save you money. When you are away, you can set this thermostat to holiday mode, and it will override your normal daily schedule. 

Another bonus of a smart thermostat is that you can still do this via your smartphone or tablet if you forget to change the settings. Then, imagine, on the day you are set to return. You can use your phone to set your hot water and heating temperature to a comfortable level, welcoming you home.

If your thermostat powers both heating and air conditioning, you might want to set the temperature at a constant level and avoid fluctuations. Setting it around 16C will offer the most energy-saving value. If it is a short trip, you can switch this off completely, but if your holiday is for several weeks, the control of temperature will prevent mould and avoid frozen pipes if you are going in the winter months.

 

Fill up your fridge

 

 

An almost empty fridge will take more energy to maintain the temperature than a full fridge. The items in a fridge, when cold, will help keep a consistent drawing of energy rather than fluctuating. You can fill the fridge with jugs of water if you do not want to waste food that might go out of date. Again, this measure won’t make a significant difference to your energy savings, but it can all add up in conjunction with other actions.

If you are going away for more than four weeks, you might want to empty the fridge and freezer and unplug it completely. 

 

Lights

 

 

There are great reasons to believe leaving lights on will act as a deterrent for someone looking to attack your home. If you use LED lighting, this could be done at a relatively low cost. Generally, if you are looking to save energy and money, LED bulbs are the way to go – saving up to 75% on each bulb in your home. However, better still would be to invest in a timer that turns on a few lights for a couple of hours in the evening. In some ways, this timer is much more effective at securing your home, as the switching on and off looks like you are at home.

 

Close the blinds

 

 

It would help if you also considered drawing your curtains or blinds. Keeping the radiant heat out of your home will help you keep it cool and a bearable temperature for your return. By keeping your home cool, you won’t need to switch on air conditioning units and fans, which can be a huge drain on your energy bills.

 

Turn off the water heater

 

 

Most homes have a gas boiler and an electric immersion heater as a backup. It is a good idea to switch the electric water heater off at the breaker box to prevent leaching of energy. If you are worried about not having hot water when you get home, your boiler will provide heat within an hour of your return.

 

The small things add up

 

Energy consumption not only costs you money but also puts pressure on global resources. We are all the time damaging the environment while we waste electricity and gas. Using these tips therefore not only saves you money but also prevents climate change. Added to this, many of these tips will make your home safer while you are away. A light on a timer looks far more like someone is home than a porch light left on 24/7. 

If you want to save energy costs even when you are at home, you might want to consider buying energy-efficient appliances or switching your energy supplier.

Remember, all these actions alone are unlikely to show a great difference in your bank account. However, a combination of these efforts could save you a worthwhile amount.

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