Every day we have a choice in which appliance to use. The kettle or the stove? A bath or a shower? Most of the time it’s convenience and habit that automatically choose between our options. However, it may be useful to pause for a second and consider which is more efficient in terms of costs and energy.
Have a bath or a shower?
A typical bath uses around 24 gallons of water, whereas a showerhead releases around 2.4 gallons a minute. As long as your shower is under 10 minutes, it’s more economical and energy intuitive to take a shower.
Turn off the lights when leaving a room?
Yes, yes, yes. Modern LED lights don’t use any extra energy to turn on, therefore always turn them off when you aren’t using them. Get into the habit of turning the lights off whenever you leave a room, even when you’re using the bathroom, to solidify the habit.
If you have traditional light bulbs, you should consider making the switch, as a whopping 69 percent could be slashed off your energy bills by converting to LED.
Boil the electric kettle or use the gas stove?
As pans have to be heated from the outside to warm the water inside, a lot of energy is wasted in the process, plus, they take a lot longer to heat up. Kettles boil faster and use fewer units of energy. Even if you heat up only the water you need, you use a pan lid and switch off the stove as soon as it’s finished, the mighty kettle wins.
On the cost front, the conclusion is a little different. Gas is cheaper than electricity so boiling your water is slightly more price effective.
Use the microwave or the stove?
Similar to a kettle vs stove, a microwave is likely to use much less energy than a gas stove. The microwave is able to efficiently heat up your soup before you could get it lukewarm in a pan.
How much electricity does leaving your phone plugged in waste?
According to UK energy provider, British Gas, as much as 23 percent of electrical usage each year may be due to “vampire devices”. These are devices with chargers left plugged in much longer than we need, and items left on standby. This includes phones, electric toothbrushes, razors, and games consoles. Get into a habit of switching off and unplugging to slash your energy consumption.
