Some households waste several liters of fresh water each day – and let energy fly out the window. Don’t flush your money down the drain, too! Changing your habits in small ways can make a world of difference by preserving resources, as well as cut your utility bills.
Saving energy is saving money
You can use less energy – and cut your bills – with a fresh look at your lighting, heating and home appliances.LED light bulbs, for example, use less energy and last longer than incandescent bulbs. You save even more if you turn them off as you leave the room (very simple with the TRÅDFRI remote control). To easily lower your heating costs, you can use insulating blinds or thicker curtains when the temperature drops.
What about that power-hungry tumble dryer? When you can drip-dry on a rack instead, your clothes suffer less wear-and-tear than they normally would.
Of course, electrical appliances are modern-day essentials but the newer models, rated AA+ or higher, are very energy efficient. And, if you want to think big, alternative energy like home solar can help to reduce your electricity payments, as well as your carbon emissions.
Useful tips by Eimantė Nemanė, Head of IKEA Interior design department
- LED bulbs can help save up to 85% of energy compared to incandescent bulbs and have a lifetime of approximately 25,000 hours.
- Easy option to reduce waste and always have fully charged batteries close at hand is a battery charger. It not only saves environment, but also your money.
- Placing a high-energy-efficiency class refrigerator in the kitchen near a radiator, oven, or in direct sunlight increases electricity consumption.
- If our kettle has even a millimeter of calcification, electricity consumption can increase by 10%.
How to use less water – without even trying
Of all the water in the world, less than 3% is fresh. So, the careful use of it makes sense – financially and environmentally. Happily, some modern products can do the water-saving for you.For example, a pressure-compensating aerator is standard across the whole IKEA range of faucets and showers. This reduces the amount of water coming out – by up to 50% in some bathroom faucets – but keeps the flow at the level you want. So, you use less energy to heat it, even more when the faucet has a cold-start function.
Today’s dishwashers and washing machines usually have an ‘eco mode’ option that’s highly water- and energy-efficient. In fact, a full dishwasher on this setting will use less water than if you were to do it all by hand.
Save some for the plants, too
A typical home can save many liters of water each day, simply by turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth. Or by washing your salad in a bowl instead of under running water. You can then give this water to your houseplants. And while you wait for the shower to warm up, you can collect the water for the same purpose.Fresh water may be an expensive resource – but rainwater is free to collect for use on your garden. (If you wait until sunset, you lose less water through evaporation.)
In warmer weather, you can chill your tap water in the fridge so that you don’t have to run the faucet to cool down first. Of course, not everyone in the world has drinkable water on tap. So, perhaps those of us that do ought to value every last drop.
Top tips from Dalia Karlaitė, lecturer at the Faculty of Management of Vilnius College:
- The biggest mistake is underestimating our water resources. Water must not only be used responsibly, but also properly managed and treated, thereby reducing our negative impact on the environment.
- Preferring a shower to a bath can save up to 3 times more water.
- We can save a significant amount of water by turning off the tap while brushing our teeth or soaping our hands and body.
- It is estimated that the most time is spent, and therefore the most water is used, trying to wash the whole soapy body. If people reduced the amount of body wash they use each time, they would save a significant amount of water.
- Washing dishes by hand uses about 4-8 litres of water per minute, while modern dishwashers use 7-11 litres of water for the entire wash. Modern appliances calculate the water demand based on the amount of dishes or laundry, which means no water is wasted.
Top tips by Eimantė Nemanė, Head of IKEA Interior design department
- An aerator integrated in the tap can help you save up to 40% water in the bathroom and up to 30% in the kitchen.
- The ÅBÄCKEN mist nozzle fixed on a mixer tap saves up to 95% water.
- Energy efficient appliances can significantly reduce your electricity and water bills.
Expert tips to help you save on heating
Top tips by Eimantė Nemanė, Head of IKEA Interior design department
- To keep your home warm during winter, cover the windows with curtains at night and open them during the day to let in the sunshine.
- Thicker black-out curtains and honeycomb blinds retain air and heat from going out, which keeps your home warm.
- Rugs are useful for keeping your home warm and comfortable to walk around in the cold season.
- For a warmer and cosier sleep in cool weather, it is recommended to use blankets with more filling and polyurethane foam mattresses that retain heat better.
Top tips from Karolis Januševičius, Associate Professor at VILNIUS TECH:
- A one-degree reduction in room temperature can reduce your heating costs by 5%.
- With the right daily habits, thermal energy consumption can be reduced by up to 10-20%.
- Making sure radiators are not placed behind furniture or covered with curtains would reduce heating costs by 1%.
- Covering your windows with curtains or blinds for the night can save up to 2% on heating costs.
