According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average British household emits around six tonnes of CO2 and spends around £870 on power and fuel a year, but both figures can be massively cut with a few simple steps. Julia Gray looks at some of the measures you can take at home to slash your emissions and save you money
Published: 21 June 2007

1 Change your light bulbs to eco ones

One of the simplest things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is replace your home’s conventional light bulbs with energy-saving ones. The latter used to be really expensive but prices have dropped dramatically and they come in all shapes and sizes, as well as different wattages and hues. Low-energy light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than conventional ones, and just one bulb will save you around £9 and 40kg of CO2 emissions a year. Incredibly, if every household in the UK had just three of these eco bulbs, we’d save the equivalent of the annual output of a power station.

2 Insulate

Insulate your loft, walls and hot water cylinder (unless you have a combination boiler, in which case you won’t have one). British homes lose enough heat through their walls and roofs to heat approximately 3,000,000 homes every year. Almost a quarter of heat loss is through the roof, but adequate loft insulation will save you around £180-£220 and one tonne of CO2 a year. Similarly, cavity wall insulation will cut your heat loss by approximately 60 per cent, saving you around £130-£160 and one tonne of CO2 a year. Walls leak more heat than any other part of your home, so if you have cavity walls (and not everyone does), get them filled with insulation. Finally, your hot water cylinder: fit an insulation jacket and you’ll save around £20 and 150kg of CO2 a year. You should also lag your pipes to save energy and money.

3 Change your boiler

If you have an old boiler, it’s almost certainly inefficient and so costing you money, as conventional boilers are only 60 per cent efficient and waste 40 per cent of their heat.

All new boilers (with a few exceptions) have to be energy-efficient condensing ones, which retain heat from the gasses usually expelled down the flue. Have one of these fitted (by a CORGI installer) and you’ll cut your heating bills by around a third and emit one tonne less of CO2 a year. Combine this with upgraded heating controls and the reduction will be as much as 40 per cent. Thermostatic radiator valves, for example, allow you to precisely control the output of each radiator in your home, so you need never have a radiator turned up too high.

4 Recycle

Now that doorstep collections of recyclable goods are commonplace, there’s no excuse for not doing your bit. While it’s true that some councils only collect the basics – glass, paper and cans – others are more proactive and take everything from foil and fabric to cardboard and plastic bottles (the problem with plastic is that there are several different types and only certain ones are generally recycled). If you don’t have full doorstep facilities, there’s always your local recycling centre or tip, providing you don’t drive there specially, which would probably cause more environmental damage than good.

Shockingly, Britain’s recycling record is one of the worst in Europe, according to the most recent comparable figures, with only Greece and Portugal recycling less. Of the 600kg of waste generated by each of us in Briton a year, 74 per cent goes to landfill, 8 per cent is incinerated and just 18 per cent is recycled or composted, compared to 65 per cent in the Netherlands and 58 per cent in Germany.

There’s no excuse for this and if you’re not already recycling everything you possibly can, you need to get into a recycling routine without delay. Place recyclable objects by the front door so you take them out with you each morning to put in your council recycling bin, or set up a special bin or bins in your kitchen for recyclable goods. Your local council will have information about what can and can’t be recycled in your area, so contact it for a full list. You should also recycle at work and encourage your employer to provide recycling facilities, if it doesn’t already.

Buying recycled goods (something many of us forget but also vitally important) and increasing your home recycling by just 10 per cent will save around 90kg of CO2 a year. And don’t overlook charity shops – donate to and buy from these to improve your recycling credentials.

5 Draught proof and/or double glaze your windows

Single-glazed windows and poorly insulated frames can result in a fifth of all heat loss. Double glazing can reduce this loss by 50 per cent and save you around £80-£100 and 570kg of CO2 a year. If you can’t afford double glazing (or secondary double glazing), invest in draught excluders for your windows and doors (both internal and external) instead. There are lots of inexpensive draught-excluding measures you can do yourself, including weatherstripping, draught-excluder brushes, long, lined curtains (though don’t cover warm radiators with them) and fabric “sausages” for the bottom of doors. Draught proofing your doors and windows will save you around £20 and 140kg of CO2 a year.

6 Compost

 As well as collecting standard recyclable items, many councils also collect food scraps and garden waste from your doorstep. While the UK is only, of course, recycling and composting about 18 per cent of its waste, a third or more of household waste can actually be composted.

If your council doesn’t collect compostable items or you have a garden, you should be making your own compost. In fact, councils often sell compost bins at a discount to encourage you to do just that. Alternatively, if you have room, build a timber frame for your compost heap and cover it with old carpet or plastic sheeting to retain the moisture and heat. As well as green and food waste, you can compost all kinds of things you might not consider suitable, including kitchen roll, shredded paper, cardboard and vacuum cleaner bags.

If you don’t have outside space, you can get compact compost bins and sprinkle on a Japanese substance called Bokashi, which breaks the matter down quickly and should take care of any unpleasant odours. You could even have a communal compost bin if you live in a block of flats.

Other benefits of composting include fewer bin bags to contend with when putting out the rubbish, knowing you’re contributing less to landfill and having an end product that will enrich your garden and house plants. Many people go one step further and get a wormery, in which worms do all the hard work for you – and they don’t waste much time.

7 Full loads only

Never put a washing machine or dishwasher on without it being full, unless you have an economy or half-load programme, because you’re wasting water as well as energy. Wash your clothes at 30Þ and you’ll save around 40 per cent of the energy your washing machine uses.

According to research for Ariel, as a nation, we’re wasting £170m worth of energy a year by washing our clothes at higher temperatures.

Energy-sapping tumble drying should also be ditched in favour of drying clothes outside, on radiators and clotheshorses or in the airing cupboard. Tumble driers are one of the worst offenders in the home for CO2 emissions: a year of not using yours will save you around £75 and 635kg of CO2.

8 Only boil enough water for your needs

It’s all too easy to turn the tap on and fill the kettle up without considering how much water you actually need, but again you’re wasting both water and electricity. Only boil enough water for your needs – at home and work – and you’ll make big savings. It’s estimated that if all of us stopped “filling” the kettle, enough energy would be saved to power between 50 and 75 per cent of the UK’s street lights. If you’re struggling to get warm in the colder months, do boil the kettle for a hot water bottle and do put on more clothes but don’t immediately turn on the heating.

9 Conserve energy when cooking

Chop food into small pieces when cooking, as it will cook quicker and use less energy. It’s also important to boil water for cooking in the kettle and then transfer it to the hob, to only boil enough to just cover the food, to put the saucepan lid on and to ensure the pan’s the right size for the burner or ring you’re using, otherwise energy will be lost around the sides. Ovens and saucepans can be turned off before the food is completely cooked because it will continue cooking in the boiling water or hot air. If you want to warm up the kitchen, keep the oven door open once you’ve finished cooking but don’t be tempted to do this when it’s on/lit.

10 Don’t leave appliances on standby

That little coloured standby light uses 10-60 per cent of the energy needed to power the appliance when in use, so always switch it off at the socket. Alternatively, invest in a Bye Bye Standby kit, which cuts power to appliances left on standby so you don’t even need to think about it. Eight per cent of UK households’ energy, or four million tonnes of CO2 annually, is wasted by appliances left on standby. Stamp out standby and unplug chargers and you could save as much as £130 and 560kg of CO2 a year. Another useful gadget is the Electrisave, which shows how much electricity you’re using so you can identify the most power-hungry appliances in your home.
(The Independent, 22/06/2007)