These days we take electricity for granted and very few of us stop to think about how much electricity we use on a daily basis. From boiling the kettle to switching on a light or charging a mobile phone; it all adds up and because the price of electricity continues to rise, energy efficiency is something should all take more seriously.
Becoming more energy efficient will not only help you save money by reducing your electricity bills, a reduction in the amount of energy you use also means that fewer fossil fuels are burnt. Fossil fuels are burnt in order to produce electricity and this in turn increases carbon emissions which have been linked to global warming.
The way in which electricity consumption is measured can be very confusing – working out how much electricity you’ve used by looking at your bill can prove almost impossible! One of the best ways to keep tabs on how much electricity you use is to invest in an energy monitor. These small portable gadgets are designed to tell you (almost in real-time) how much energy you are using, either in pounds and pence or in kilowatt hours.
There are many things you can do to reduce the cost of your energy bills. Energy-efficient household appliances can prove to be very useful but there’s little point in splashing out on brand-new appliances unless it’s time to replace them. Some energy-efficient appliances can be very expensive to buy so it’s important to take into consideration how much money you’ll save. Or, if you want to try something radical, you could switch to one of the green electricity suppliers or even think about generating your own electricity.
Small changes though can make a big difference and as we’ve covered in previous posts, remembering to unplug your mobile phone charger once your phone is charged and turning the TV off at the mains at night, can all help.
