The economy today is a worry for many of us, and searching for as many ways as possible for us to cut down on our spending is a priority. One of the biggest issues we’re having is the global rise in energy prices. This means that we’re now all paying much more for the same energy usage. While energy costs have risen many times in the past, today’s energy crisis has seen prices skyrocket, leaving many fearful about how they will be able to afford these new prices. This is why many people are looking for ways to cut their energy usage as much as possible, and this is actually much simpler than you’d expect. To help you with this, we’ve listed a few ways to reduce the energy usage in your property and hopefully reduce those monthly costs.

Turn Off Devices That Aren’t In Use
While this might seem like an obvious suggestion, it’s something that many people don’t think about or otherwise don’t expect to be a problem. In some cases, it can just be because people can’t be bothered to spend time turning things off properly. However, leaving devices on, whether entirely on or in sleep mode, will drain power over time, and there’s frankly very little point in doing so. While it can be frustrating waiting for your PC, games console, or laptop to turn on, you’ll be surprised at how much power these will guzzle when left on permanently and, in turn, how much you’ll save by turning them off when not in use.

Change Your Lightbulbs
A common issue when it comes to energy usage is the type of lightbulbs you use. Certain older bulbs were far less energy efficient than today’s LED and low-energy bulbs, so it’s a very good idea to switch any old bulbs and light fittings for newer alternatives. A good choice here is to use smart lights, as these use LEDs to light up. They can also be dimmed and turned on or off remotely, and some can even change the colour entirely. The ability to control your lights when away from home is especially useful when it comes to saving energy, as people often forget to turn lights off when they leave the house. You might also want to leave lights on purposefully to make it appear as though someone is home to deter thieves. This remote control allows you to make it look even more like someone is in, as the lights can be turned on and off at will, which will look like someone has flicked the light switch. You then don’t have to leave it on all day and can instead turn it on remotely when it gets dark.

Unplug Chargers
While you’re obviously going to have to charge certain devices regularly, such as your smartphone, chargers can be a real waste of energy, too. Certain chargers and plugs will actually waste a small amount of energy over time when they’re not even charging anything. This is why it’s a good idea to unplug or turn off chargers at the wall socket when they’re not in use. This can be frustrating to do every single time you stop charging something, but over time it could save you a fair bit of money.

Insulate Your Home
Another step you can take is to reduce the amount of heat that can escape from your home. You can lower your energy bills with double-glazing windows, sealing doors properly, and adding further insulation to your property. All these steps will help to increase the insulation level in your home, reducing the temperature transfer rate into and out of your home. Heat will naturally escape through walls and ceilings and through gaps in window and door frames. This is why sealing these gaps and increasing the insulation in the walls and roof of your home can significantly reduce the heat escaping your home. This also means you’ll be able to turn down the thermostat, reduce energy usage, and turn the heating on less often. This can save you a great deal of money.

Avoid Using Your Tumble Dryer
There are certain appliances in the home that are generally considered to be extremely useful yet unnecessary. The tumble dryer is one of these appliances. First off, they can be very useful if your clothes are wet and need to be dried as fast as possible so that you can wear them for a night out, for example. However, if you’re simply drying a load of washing, none of those clothes are needed in the near future. Instead, what you should do is hang up your washing to air dry. You can do this outside if you have the space to use a washing line. This will be the fastest way to airdry your clothes, but if you are unable to hang things up outside, don’t worry. You can get drying racks for your clothes to hang things up indoors, too. Some can also be powered, heating up slightly to increase the drying speed, but of course, this uses a bit of power. However, it uses far less than a tumble dryer.

Switch To Energy Efficient Appliances
As new appliances are developed for the home, it’s worth remembering that energy efficiency tends to be a top priority for developers. Older appliances will likely have inferior energy efficiency, so when it comes to switching any of your appliances, you should get one with a much higher energy efficiency rating than your current appliance. It’s worth noting that it’s probably not worthwhile switching all of your appliances as this will cost you far more money than you’d save overall. However, if you have to switch to a new appliance anyone, due to the old one breaking or because you’re redecorating, it’s wise to take this into consideration.

Don’t Overfill Your Kettle
One appliance that tends to use the most energy is the humble kettle. These have to use quite a substantial amount of power to heat the water inside them, so it’s important to remember this when using one. Try to avoid having to re-boil your kettle because you forgot to use it or left it too long, allowing the water to cool again. This is a waste of power and money. Alongside this, you should also ensure that you don’t overfill your kettle and only use the amount of water you’ll need. This reduces the amount of time it takes for the kettle to boil, and so naturally uses less power in total.

Reduce The Temperature Of Your Washing Machine
Another appliance that can waste power is the washing machine. Similar to how a kettle has to heat water, a washing machine will also use quite a lot of energy to heat the water inside it. This is why it’s a very good idea to turn the temperature settings down on your washing machine as much as possible. Of course, sometimes it’s important to wash certain things with hot water. However, many clothing items, towels, and bedsheets can be cleaned with a cold wash, especially with the correct detergent. In fact, some detergents are designed to work optimally in a cold setting, so you should endeavour to do this whenever possible.