4 Tips to Reduce Your Home Energy Consumption
Your parents have probably told you everything about switching off the light when leaving a room or not leaking water when not needed. However, this is not enough to limit global warming on a personal scale and it is not enough for you to save some money this year and probably in the coming years as well… So here are 4 different tips to reduce your energy consumption in your daily life.
These are very easy to put in place so as the slogan says: Just do it!
Manage your heating but do not change the way you live
Heating represents around 60% of a household’s electricity invoice according to the ADEME (Agence de la transition écologique d’Ile-de-France). Managing heating in your home depending on the room is one easy solution. You probably do not need as much heating in your bedroom while sleeping under your blanket as in your office when working.
The easiest way to make it work is then to set a night shift with a certain temperature that is a bit below the average temperature during the daytime. Going further with this process, set a different temperature between the rooms according to where you spend your time and what you do in that particular room. For example, you would need more heating in your living room/kitchen during the day than in the kitchen; firstly, because you spend more time in the first sport as in the second one, and secondly, because you may have more heating coming from cooking
How do you then set these objectives in an easy practical way? Several systems help mitigate this through a thermostat or even directly from your phone, even when you are away. Two of the very well-known reseller of such systems are Legrand and Schneider Electric. One last quick tip to go further with the heating: you can also close the curtains when away for a few days or hours, depending on your objective
Optimize the consumption of your electric devices
When it comes to using high-consuming objects, it is possible to optimize their consumption. Let us take the example of the dishwasher or the washing machine. There is usually no need to use these through high temperatures to get things clean. Try washing your clothes at 30°C instead of 40° and use the eco mode of your dishwasher to reduce its consumption.
When cooking, cover your pan to avoid wasting some of the heat produced and switch off the fire a little bit before the end of your cooking; these two tips could reduce your consumption by about 25%.
Digital is key! TV, laptop, tablet, phones, extra screens… all these devices are not considered as highly consuming ones, but they surely consume a lot of energy at the end of the year if you don’t pay attention to them. You have probably seen this a million times across your home or your friend’s home.
It definitely happened to you to see the charger plugged in without any device at the end of it but you had been on your bed for the last 45 minutes and you got so lazy to get up that you left it there all night long. Well, this is some energy you can save very easily!
Do not let any charger stay plugged in without anything to charge because it still consumes energy. Turn off your devices rather than leaving them asleep; this could represent around 25% of your total electrical consumption according to Engie. And use the energy-saving mode or the black screen when working on your laptop or using your phone, it will save some energy and your eyes will love it!
Renew your old lights
The last thing that is probably the most important but quite costly is to get rid of your old lights, heaters, and windows. By buying LED lights, you could reduce your consumption by 75% compared to your old lightbulbs (Harvard University Department of Sustainability). They will also last 50 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. Here, it is more of an investment rather than simply more expense. If you can afford it, do not hesitate — this is the first step towards a more sustainable home.
Talking about money, reducing your energy consumption at home helps you save some money. The British organization, the Energy Saving Trust has calculated this for you! Are you now convinced it is the right way to do it?
Want to know more about the different techniques to reduce your energy consumption and the money you could save by doing so? Please refer to this article by EDF energy — one of the French providers of energy.
Any new tips? Please share in the comments!
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminating the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
