Lights off

What

Being 'eco friendly' may sometimes seem complicated, time consuming or expensive, but doing this action is outrageously simple: turn off the lights!

Why

No one likes that moment when the bills come in and the hard-earned cash goes out. Lighting typically accounts for 15% of an average households' energy bills.1 You could quite literally reduce your bills with the flick of a switch.

How

This one is super-duper easy:

Not in the room? Lights off. Daylight outside? Lights off.

You can also go the extra mile and insert sensor or timer lights to avoid leaving lights on in areas like porches and stairwells.

There is a long-standing myth that leaving lights on for a few minutes uses less energy than turning them off and on again. In fact, it's almost always best to turn lights off when you leave the room, saving you energy and money on those pesky bills.

That's pretty much all there is too it.

References

  1. Energy Saving Trust
  2. BBC
  3. Mike Berners-Lee (2010) The Carbon Footprint of Everything, Profile Books Ltd.