Stop wasting energy in your living room
Put those pesky appliances in their place and say no to standby. Here are some top tips to keep your living room cosy and keep those energy bills at bay.
- Draw the curtains at dusk to keep the heat in
- Make sure items that are not in use are unplugged or switched off at the wall (when was the last time you used your video recorder?!)
- Only turn on the lights when you need them.
- Don't leave things on standby - this could save around £35 per year on energy bills.
- Close internal doors to keep the heat in the rooms you are in and turn radiators off in unused rooms.
- Consider putting on an extra layer of clothing before turning up the heating.
- Energy efficient light bulbs save on average around £3 a year each.
- Put your digital recorder on a separate plug socket so you can turn off everything else at the mains but keep your series link recordings
- If you are going on holiday, switch off your television and set-top box at the plug
- If you are thinking about buying a new TV, look for the Energy Saving Trust Recommended logo. This is your guarantee that the appliance you buy is among the most energy efficient on the market.
- Remember that the energy consumption of your TV is strongly linked to the screen-size. If you are thinking about buying a new TV think carefully about how big a screen you actually need. Smaller TVs are generally cheaper to run.
- If you are using your television to access digital radio, it's more energy efficient to opt for a blank screen. Better still, get a digital radio instead.
- Get into the habit of turning off the television at the socket or on the set, and not leaving it on standby. You can buy mains controllers which do this by remote control.
- Make sure the brightness setting on your TV is suitable for your room. The brighter the TV is set, the more energy it uses. The factory settings on TVs are often too bright for home use.
- Consider investing in an intelligent mains controller so that all the equipment linked to your TV (video recorder, DVD player, games controllers etc) are automatically switched off whenever the TV is turned off.
- If you don't want to purchase a controller, clear a space around your plug sockets to make it easier to turn items off at the mains, or invest in an individually switched extension lead.
- If you are replacing old TVs or other electrical equipment, dispose of it in a way that means it can be recycled, rather than sending it to landfill. Whenever you buy new electrical appliances, the retailer is obliged to either take back the old equipment or tell you where you can take it to recycle it. You can also find out where to recycle electrical equipment locally by ringing the council, or using the 'Bank Locator' search tool on the Recycle-more.co.uk website.
