Looking after the Planet Part 5
The Energy Saving Trust has lots of ways to help and for the next few weeks we’ll be passing on their hints and tips, they’re easy to follow. This month… The Bedroom
- Use the right tog duvet for the weather (low tog in summer and high tog in winter) to avoid having to use the heating (or air conditioning) unnecessarily.
- Draw curtains at dusk to keep the heat in for when you go to bed
- Wear socks to bed in cold weather to keep toasty
- Towel dry your hair thoroughly to cut down the time you’ll have to use your hairdryer.
- Use a hot water bottle to warm the bed up, rather than an electric blanket. (As Queen of the Freezing Cold Feet, Andrea is going to find this one difficult). Another option are those scented microwave heat packs, they’ll warm the bed and give off a soothing lavender scent which is an aid to relaxation
- Make sure all the lights are turned off when you go to bed, or use a low wattage energy saving night light if you do need to leave one on
- Don’t leave your mobile phone on charge all night – it only needs a couple of hours
- During winter, set the heating to switch off a short while before you go to bed – that way it’ll still be nice and warm as you get ready for bed but the heating won’t stay on unnecessarily once you’re tucked up.
- Likewise set it to switch on just long enough before you wake up for the house to be warm by the time you get out of bed. But you don’t need it to stay switched on all the way up to when you leave the house – the house will take a while to cool down again, so try setting the heating to turn off half an hour before you’re due to go out the door.
- Keep extra blankets by the bed so you can easily adjust your temperature during the night.
- Invest in draught excluders for the bedroom door to keep the heat in your room during the night.
And for children’s bedrooms…
- A TV, DVD player and PS3 will cost around £35 to run over the course of a year – but it could be far higher if they are left on when not in use. Encourage your children to turn off equipment at the socket by making it easy to get to the switch.
- Draw curtains at dusk to keep the heat in and the draughts out
- Get into the habit of keeping doors closed.
- Think about what you are putting on extension sockets to make sure you aren’t powering something that is not in use
- Think about “losing” the remote control to the television to reduce the temptation to leave it on standby.
- If you are thinking about buying a new computer, a new laptop typically uses around 85% less energy than a new desktop computer and takes up less room too.
