Energy Savings Facts
The Energy Saving Trust is one of the UK's leading organisations set up to address the damaging effects of climate change.
It aims to cut CO2 emissions by promoting sustainable and efficient use of energy.
The Energy Saving Trust is an independent, non-profit making organisation and acts as a bridge from government to consumers, trade, businesses, local authorities and the energy market.
They provide impartial information and advice and have a network of advice centres in the UK specifically designed to help consumers take action to save energy.
The facts, some solutions, and stats for: -
- Your home
- Walls, roof, windows and doors
- Heating and hot water
- Appliances
- Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble driers
- Refrigeration
- Other consumer electronics (gadgets)
- Lighting
- Transport
- General information – insulation, heating, glazing
- About the Energy Saving Trust
Your Home
Every household in the UK creates around five and half tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year - enough to fill a hot air balloon.
The average home emits almost twice as much CO2 as the average household car emits in a year every year.
The average household spends around £23 per week on fuel and power, around £1,200 per year.
Walls, roof, windows and doors
In an un-insulated house:
26% of heat is lost through the roof
33% is lost through the walls
18% is lost through the windows
11% is lost through the floor and the door
12% is lost due to draughts and essential ventilation
Cavity wall insulation is one of the most cost-effective energy efficiency measures you can take in the home. It can save you around £110 each year on your heating bill.
Invest in draught excluders for doors, windows and letterboxes opening onto the outside to reduce the amount of warm air escaping. Gaps between skirting boards and floorboards are also worth tackling.
Double-glazing cuts heat loss and also reduces noise and condensation problems. Savings of around £130 on bills can be expected annually if whole-house single glazing is replaced with Energy Saving Recommended double glazing.
Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping.
Heating and hot water
The older your boiler is, the more inefficient it is likely to be. If it is 15 years or older, you should definitely think about changing it.
On average, heating and hot water account for around 60% of the average fuel bill and, unless your home is newly built, your heating system is unlikely to be running as efficiently as it could.
You can reduce your heating bills by up to a quarter by replacing an old G-rated boiler with an A-rated condensing boiler and a full set of heating controls.
Replace an old G-rated boiler with a new A-rated condensing one and upgrade your heating controls at the same time, and you can save up to £225 a year.
Hot water will stay hot longer, and you will waste less energy heating it, if you insulate your hot water cylinder. Fitting a jacket to your hot water tank can cut wastage, saving you around £35 a year.
Hot water pipes lose heat between the boiler and hot water tank, so insulate them wherever you can see them. Insulating your visible hot water pipes can save around £10 a year on your fuel bills.
Reducing your heating thermostat by 1°C when you are too warm can cut up to 10% off your heating costs. For a gas-heated, three-bed semi-detached property, this could work out at a saving of around £50 a year.
The thermostat on your hot water tank should be set to 60° C or 140° F - it is not necessary to set it higher than this.
Appliances
Energy efficient appliances use less power and are cheaper to run. And because they need less energy, they're responsible for fewer greenhouse gas emissions - good news for the environment.
To pick out energy efficient from the pack, look out for the Energy Efficiency Recommended logo. The distinctive blue logo can be found on anything from fridges to tumble dryers, to dishwashers and light bulbs.
It is a sure sign that the appliance being bought is one of the most efficient in its category.
Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble driers
Over nine in 10 homes in the UK have a washing machine (including washer dryers); more than 40% have a tumble dryer and a third have a dishwasher.
We use £1.4bn worth of electricity, by using washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers. This produces around 6m tonnes of CO2 each year - that's the same as the carbon dioxide emissions from about 2m cars.
The average washing machine is used for 260 cycles a year; a dishwasher for 245 cycles and a tumble dryer 140 times.
Washing clothes at 30 degrees instead of higher temperatures uses around 40% less electricity (saving you around £10 a year). Modern washing powders and detergents work just as effectively at lower temperatures so unless you have very dirty washing, bear this in mind.
A new Energy Saving Recommended dishwasher will use around 20% less energy than a typical old model. When using your dishwasher or washing machine, it's better to wait for a full load, or use the economy cycle if your machine has one.
Replacing your old dishwasher with a new Energy Saving Recommended model will save around £11 a year on energy bills and around 47kg of CO2.
Try drying your clothes outside during the summer months. You can save on average £15 a year on your electricity bill and 65kg of CO2 by drying clothes outside on a line instead of using the tumble dryer during the summer months.
Across the UK, if everyone with a tumble drier dried outside instead of using their driers during the summer months, it would collectively save around £180m a year, and as much CO2 as would be saved by taking 270,000 cars off Britain's roads.
Refrigeration
UK households use around £2bn worth of electricity every year on cooling and freezing food and drinks.
Fridges and freezers in UK homes use as much electricity in a year as four 700MW power stations produce in a year.
Buying an Energy Saving Recommended fridge freezer to replace your old model could cut CO2 emissions produced indirectly by your home by around 155kg a year.
A new, energy efficient fridge freezer (Energy Saving Recommended) uses around 60% less energy to do the same job than a typical old model will use, saving you around £38 a year on your energy bills.
If everyone in the UK upgraded their old cold appliances to Energy Saving Recommended products, it would save over £700m worth of electricity every year.
Enough CO2 would be saved annually to fill the Royal Albert Hall 15,000 times and the electricity saved each year could power the UK's street lighting for 3 years.
Other consumer electronics
On average, UK households waste around £40 each year by leaving appliances on standby. Across the UK the electricity wasted is as much carbon saved by taking 1.5 million cars off the road. Households in the UK are estimated to spend around 8% of their electricity bill just powering appliances in standby.
UK households spend £3.4bn every year on electricity used in consumer electronic and IT products.
If everyone boiled only the water they needed every time they used the kettle, we could save enough electricity in a year to run the UK's street lighting for nearly 2 months.
Lighting
In most homes, lighting accounts for around 20% of the electricity bill.
UK households spend around £1.8bn every year on electricity to power their lighting.
Energy saving bulbs use up to 80% less electricity than standard bulbs and last around 10 times as long.
Depending on how long your lights are in use every day, an energy saving light bulb can save you around £2.50 per year on average or around £7 for brighter bulbs or those used for more than a few hours a day.
By replacing all the remaining traditional bulbs in your home with energy saving light bulbs you could save around £25 a year from your energy bill and 100kg of CO2. Over the lifetime of all the bulbs this could add up to £390 saved on energy bills and in bulb costs and 2.2 tonnes of CO2.
If every UK household installed just one extra energy saving light bulb (or ‘Compact Fluorescent Light bulb’) in their house, the CO2 saved would be equivalent to taking 70,000 cars off the roads.
If everyone in the UK switched all their remaining traditional inefficient light bulbs to energy saving light bulbs, the electricity saved in just one year would run the UK’s street lighting for four and a half years, or provide electricity for every house in London for 9 months.
Transport
Road transport makes up a quarter of the UK’s CO2 emissions, at just over 130m tonnes of CO2 a year. Of this, over half (55%) is from passenger cars.
The most efficient car in its class typically uses 30% less fuel than the class average.
Smarter driving techniques can save you 15% of your fuel usage.
Company cars account for around 8% of passenger cars.
Britain has one of the lowest cycling rates in Europe, with only 2% of all journeys made by bike.
20% of all car trips are less than 2 miles and over half are less than 5 miles.
You don't necessarily need to move down a vehicle size in order to save on fuel costs and emissions.
Buying the most fuel efficient car in its class can save you around £325 a year in fuel costs alone.
If you're on the motorway, driving at 85mph rather than 70mph can add 25% to your fuel consumption.
Move up a gear early; check your revs and change up a gear before between 2,000 and 2,500rpm
Anticipate road conditions and drive smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking.
The most efficient speed depends upon the car in question but is typically around 45 - 50mph.
If every car driver in the UK adopted smarter driving, we would save nearly £9bn a year on our fuel bills.
A business with a fleet of around 200 medium-sized vehicles, each travelling an average of 500 miles per week could save nearly £55,000 a year by making their fleets more green
General information
Insulation:
Did you know that in an un-insulated house more than half of the heat is lost through the walls and roof.
As well as reducing fuel bills, insulation can also help prevent condensation on walls and ceilings, and give your home a more even temperature, all year round.
If you do not currently have any installing loft insulation in your loft, by installing it to a depth of at least 270mm (10"), you could save around £145 a year (for a gas heated, three-bed semi-detached house).
If your home is un-insulated, a third of the heat your central heating system generates will be lost through the walls.
Insulating your cavity walls can save you around £110 a year off your heating bills.
Heating:
Save up to £225 a year on your heating bills by replacing an old G-rated boiler with an A-rated condensing boiler with a full set of heating controls (based on a gas heated 3 bed semi-detached house).
Reduce heating bills by up to a third by replacing an old G-rated boiler with an A-rated condensing boiler with full set of heating controls (based on a gas heated 3 bed semi-detached house).
Fitting a room thermostat (if your central heating system does not have one currently) can save you around £55 a year off your heating bills (based on a gas heated 3 bed semi-detached house).
Glazing:
In an un-insulated house, 18% of the heat is lost through the windows.
Replacing the single glazing in a gas heated, 3 bed semi-detached house with Energy Saving.
Recommended double-glazing (with an energy rating of C) can save you around £130 per year.
About the Energy Saving Trust
The Energy Saving Trust is the UK's leading organisation set up to try and prevent climate change by helping everybody to cut carbon dioxide emissions - the main greenhouse gas causing climate change - from their homes and transport. They promote the efficient use of energy and a low carbon lifestyle.
Through its network of advice centres, the organisation provides free and impartial advice to consumers on saving energy, domestic renewables and greener transport, and is beginning to include water saving and waste reduction advice in its remit. It also works with retailers, builders and industry to make sure that energy efficient products are available for people to choose.
Visit www.energysavingtrust.org.uk or call your local Energy Saving Trust advice centre on 0800 512 012