Energy saving tips for families

I'm working with BritMums and British Gas on a campaign to help educate about energy conservation.  So I thought I would get the whole family on board with some New Year energy saving tactics.  Here's what we came up with:

1. Getting small children to turn out the lights before going out is much more fun if it's a competitive sport.


2.  At night turn off power switches or invest in a standby saver.  Modern living rooms can be a jungle, labelling plugs and fourways and grouping similar devices together can make it easier. 


3.  A drawer, or easily accessible shelf for chargers makes it less tempting to leave them plugged in.  Labelled zip lock freezer bags are a cheap and easy way to keep all the equipment for each appliance together.


4.  Turn the tap off.  Leaving the tap running isn't just about wasting water, but the energy to move that water about and heat it.  


5.  I have explained to the kids that leaving the fridge door open after raiding it costs money, this means there is less money to spend on nice things to put in it.  


6. Although it did nothing for marital relations, we finally ended the feud over how the heating thermostat works.  We set it a degree lower, caught up with GMT and timed it more accurately to reflect our routine.


7.  I have stuck cheeky reminder signs on the light switch for the downstairs toilet which everyone forgets to switch off.  It is surprisingly effective.


8.  Keep doors closed to individual rooms, use draught excluders along doors and for letterboxes and draw the curtains at dusk or just keep the curtains in rooms that aren't in use in the day shut.  


It was good to read we do some things really well at the Alexander Residence, for example on the laundry front, we don't have a tumble dryer, we only do full loads at 30 degrees and generally use the short load function. I am polishing my halo as I type.


I was also interested to read the UK government has committed to reduce energy usage and a key part of that is installing a smart meter in all homes by 2019.


In case you've been in the dark, rather than the green ages, smart meters are a little display in your home which will show you the impact of switching on or off various appliances in your home. You can see what your consumption looks like with your chargers unplugged, the TV off standby.


The display shows your current and past consumption so you can see how you are improving over time.  It shows you how much your tariff is costing and even has a traffic light display, red for high, green for low.


Now that would make the whole thing lots easier, more fun and more educational for the whole family don't you think?


How do you save energy, any tips for my list?

This is a sponsored post

I'm participating in the British Gas Smart Meter campaign. Smart meters work with an in-home display to show how much energy you're using in pounds and pence. You can see how much you're spending by leaving your phone charger plugged in all the time, or the heating on at night. And when you can really see how much you're using, you can start to make small changes to become more efficient. Smart Meters automatically send British Gas readings so they represent the end of estimated bills! British Gas is committed to install 1.5 million smart meters by the end of 2012