Reduce Your Household Consumption - By: Dave Sabri

Did you know that as individuals we contribute around 40% of the UKs total greenhouse gas emissions? We moan that the government isn’t doing enough to tackle climate change, but if we make some small changes around the home and to how we travel, we can reduce our carbon footprint along with our energy bills.

When combined, small changes can make the biggest difference. Leaving TVs, stereos and computers on standby contributes around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 to the environment each year – equivalent to 1.4 million long-haul flights.

Light up your home using energy saving light bulbs. They last 12 times longer than the regular variety so you could save around £100 during the lifetime of each bulb.

Washing machines and dishwashers use a huge amount of electricity and water for that matter. If you do your washing at 30 degrees instead of 40, you will use 40% less energy. Make the most of any outside space and dry your clothes outdoors. Wash up by hand whenever possible and if you really want to use the dishwasher, use the energy-efficient setting.

Central heating is the biggest offender to our personal ‘green’ ratings. It contributes around 60% to all of our individual CO2 emissions. There are a few easy ways that you can reduce this carbon footprint however.

Firstly, install and energy efficient boiler. These eco-friendly additions to your home could save you £170 a year from your heating bills and the environment will get 875g less of CO2.

British Gas can help you make the switch this summer. It has removed some of the costs involved so you could save over £850 if you upgrade from your old boiler to an energy efficient one by 25 July. Along with £400 off a new boiler, you’ll get free HomeCare for one year in case anything breaks, and free radiator heating and controls installation.

Only use the heating when you need it. Make sure your boiler gives you as much control as possible and add a full set of heating controls. This means you can only have the heating on in the rooms you are using, at a level that is just about right and on a timer so that it’s not on when you are out of the house. By controlling your heat usage you could reduce your annual outgoings by a further £100 and stop over one million tonnes of CO2 clogging up the atmosphere.

Did you know that as individuals we contribute around 40% of the UKs total greenhouse gas emissions?

British Gas is more than one of the leading gas and electricity suppliers. British Gas also provide a range of other services including boiler insurance services.