The season of decorating your home, enjoying delicious treats and celebrating with family and friends is slowly approaching. Holidays are also a time when electricity consumption often increases, which has a significant impact on your finances, but also the environment. It is easy to forget about the awareness of energy savings as we decorate our homes and cities in a festive spirit. But we all prefer to spend money on gifts and festive decorations, rather than on high bills. There are simple ways to be energy efficient while celebrating the most beautiful time of the year, including energy-efficient decorations, baking several dishes at the same time, smart heating and similar things. We bring you practical tips to help you enjoy the holiday spirit without worrying about excessive energy consumption.
LED light bulbs
Lighting is a big part of holiday decorations for many, both inside and outside the house. Product innovations, such as LED decorative lamps make holiday lights safer and require less energy consumption. When it comes to energy-efficient decorations, LEDs consume significantly less electricity than ordinary decorative lamps and last much longer. This automatically means less waste in landfills because you don’t have to change them often.
Food preparation
Your oven consumes a lot of energy, especially for baking holiday cookies or large holiday meals. Your cooking can become more energy-efficient if you prepare several dishes at the same time, shortening the time of turning on your oven. Group the dishes to be cooked/baked at the same temperature. Resist the temptation to open the oven door and check your baking process. The temperature can drop by up to 25% each time you open the oven door. Additional tip: if you put the lid on your pot, what’s inside will boil faster, and your food will cook more evenly, using less energy.
Heating
As colder temperatures come inside your home, you often increase the heating temperature to keep warm. This year, find other ways you can prevent the cold. Having guests during the holidays can increase the temperature in your home. At these times, reduce the heating temperature. Also, keep blankets around the house and use them to keep you warmer during day and night. Although the sun doesn’t always shine during the colder months, there are still days when it reaches our homes, so take advantage and open your curtains and use the sun’s heat to warm your home.
Holiday travel
Did you know that many electronic devices use energy even when turned off? These energy “vampires” suck in energy without you even knowing it. Even when not in use, because they are not actually out of the energy socket “vampires” use the standby option. Most household appliances automatically switch to this standby mode, allowing them to turn on quickly. This subtle use of energy noticeably affects the total amount of energy consumed in your household, so don’t forget to take all your appliances out of the sockets when not in use, especially when you go on the road.
Shopping
Holiday shopping is often chaotic and, besides the financial cost, it can damage the environment. Namely, thousands of paper and plastic bags end up in landfills after mass purchases during the holiday season. Instead, always carry reusable bags with you to reduce this type of waste. Also, plan your shopping wisely to reduce more trips to the store and use of the car. In this way, you contribute to cleaner air but also significant fuel savings. Additional tip: When packing your gifts, consider using recycled paper. You can create your own wrapping paper using newspaper articles or magazine clippings.
With these practical tips for saving during the holidays, such as energy-efficient decorations, smart shopping and food preparation, you can celebrate the holidays without worries. Not only will these tips help you save money, but they will also benefit the environment.