Top 10 tips for a more eco-friendly home

Thursday, 03, May 2007 11:26

Households are increasingly doing their bit to make their homes more eco-friendly and energy efficient, but are there easy measures you are missing?

NewConsumer.com and Sky.com have teamed up to offer their top ten energy-saving tips to help save money and be more eco-friendly at the same time.

Top ten eco-friendly tips for the home

1. Get energy-saving bulbs. Old-style light bulbs are based on 100-year-old technology, and use five times as much as energy as new-type bulbs.

"You can now buy energy-savers in all shapes and sizes, including IKEA-style spotlights," Sky and NewConsumer advised.

2. Insulate your home. Roughly half the average home's heat is lost through its walls and loft. Cavity walls can be insulated for a few hundred pounds, and lofts can be lagged with an eco-friendly insulation such as recycled newspaper or wool, with grants available for both. See Warmcel, Thermafleece and the Energy Saving Trust for more information.

3. Make your own energy. If you have already insulated and installed energy-saving light bulbs, then it is time to consider creating energy for your home.

"Despite our fickle weather, solar panels are surprisingly good at making electricity in this country - £7,000 worth of panels could generate half a typical UK home's annual needs - while a solar thermal install will provide 50 per cent of your hot water needs for much of the year," explained Sky and NewConsumer.

"Mini home wind turbines aren't great in cities, but ask installers to visit your house if you live somewhere with wind and space." For more information on all three see Low Carbon Buildings.

4. Fit foil panels behind radiators. It may sound more Blue Peter than eco-chic, but reflective foil panels help use the heat most radiators lose from their backs. This is cheap, and the panels can be found at DIY stores, including B&Q.

5. Boil less and get an eco kettle. Boiling more water than needed in your kettle wastes time as well as energy. For more info on eco kettles see Nigel's Ecostore.

6. Switch your tariff. Switching electricity supplier to a green tariff is easy and effective. Two of the best are Ecotricity, which builds wind turbines with its customers' money, and Good Energy, which uses 100 per cent renewable energy and buys electricity from homeowners producing it at home.

Switching takes about five minutes on a site such as MyFinances and Green Electricity.

7. Do not leave appliances on standby. The average Brit wastes between six and ten per cent of their electricity bill a year to keep gadgets unnecessarily blinking on standby.

You could save £38 by turning electronics off at the wall when they are not in use.

Alternatively, you could get a gadget that will do it for you such as Powersafer, ByeBye Standby or Intellipanel.

8. Waste less water. In Britain we each waste 150 litres of water daily, and the lavatory's one of the key water wasters. Either get a dual-flush loo or fit an Interflush, Hippo or simply put a full plastic water bottle in your cistern so it uses less water per flush.

9. Get a smart meter. Find out the appliances costing you the most money with a smart meter.

"Most people have no idea how much they're spending on electricity at home, even after another confusing bill's landed on their kitchen table," said Sky and NewConsumer.

A smart meter such as the Electrisave and Wattson will give real-time energy usage in pence and pounds.

"The Wattson even turns blue when you're using little energy, getting redder the more your consumption goes up."

10. Buy energy efficient appliances. As the fridge-freezer is constantly on, this is a key appliance to buy wisely when the time comes to replace it.

EU ratings go up to A++ for fridge-freezers.

Sky has also launched a new energy saving appliance for its Sky+ of Sky HD boxes, that monitors whether people are using their boxes overnight and puts them on stand-by automatically.