Progress in my energy reduction

This assignment makes me realise how I take all the appliances in the house for granted. Some alterations I am doing now are easy, so it is a shame that I did not do that before. It does not take a lot of effort to do those small energy reductions, which together can have more impact.

I will start by repeating the three steps of my masterplan to minimise my energy usage: using all my electric appliances less, saving energy by doing activities together with housemates and stop using some of the more luxurious appliances.

I decided I should stop using the big lights in our house. I opened all the curtains to let natural light come into the rooms. The bathroom and hallway do not have windows, but there is still just enough light to be able to see when all other curtains and doors are open.

For the evening and night I bought smaller lights for my room that work with a battery, which enables me to see something in the dark. In addition, I bought two candles that we can use in the kitchen.

I really had to use the washing machine today because I was running out of clothes, but that consumes a lot of energy. Therefore, I asked two housemates to do our laundry together to make the washing more energy efficient.

Also today I had to do my cleaning task in the house, but I did not want to use the vacuum cleaner. In our storage I found an old broom that I could use, so this saved some energy!

I will try to use my phone less so I do not have to charge it everyday anymore. That could be a challenge…