Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and
cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year
with this simple adjustment.
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to
choose the most energy efficient products
available.
Do not leave appliances on standby
Use the “on/off” function on the machine itself. A TV set that’s switched on for 3 hours a day
(the average time Europeans spend watching TV) and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours
uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple
action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the
thermostat no higher than 50°C.
Move your fridge and freezer
Placing them next to the cooker or boiler consumes much more energy than if they were standing on
their own. For example, if you put them in a hot cellar room where the room temperature is 30-35ºC,
energy use is almost double and causes an extra 160kg of CO2 emissions for fridges per year and
320kg for freezers.
Defrost old fridges and freezers regularly
Even better is to replace them with newer models, which all have automatic defrost cycles and are
generally up to two times more energy-efficient than their predecessors.
Don’t let heat escape from your house over a long period
When airing your house, open the windows for only a few minutes. If you leave a small opening all
day long, the energy needed to keep it warm inside during six cold months (10ºC or less outside
temperature) would result in almost 1 ton of CO2 emissions.