How to keep work from home energy bills in check
A few weeks ago there was a report that said, on average, if you are working from home (WFH) all winter your heating bill will increase by £100. To be fair I thought it would be more but I guess that’s the effect of averaging.
Then I saw this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-54538949 and the only energy efficiency measure suggested was LED light bulbs. I can do better than that I thought – so here goes.
Electricity
From a WFH point of view it comes down to two main areas – IT equipment and lighting.
Lighting – this is pretty straightforward; if you haven’t already change everything to LED.
Turn things off
It’s the classic standby energy use point. Chargers, laptops, screens all use a bit of electricity even when on standby. Even with your laptop turned off the charger is still using electricity (albeit a very small amount) if the power is still on. OK a 100% turn off when you stop for lunch is probably not worth it but you should do it overnight. Being a bit of a geek on this front I bought a smart plug to have a play with. I can turn everything off via an app on my phone (the plug socket is a little awkward to get to honest!) and I have also set it to turn off no matter what at 23:00 just in case I forget.
Heating
To start with reduce the need. Close the door, you’ll be surprised how the bit of electricity used by your IT kit and lighting plus your own body heat can take the chill off. Then some good old Yorkshireness – ‘put a jumper on lad (or lass)’ and don’t forget your feet, thick socks, shoes and even a travel rug over your legs like my grandma used to do. They really do work and nobody can see the travel rug when on Teams, Zoom etc.!
Then, when needs must, only heat the room you are in and not the whole house. The easiest way to do this is with an electric convector heater. Whilst domestic electricity is four times the price of gas, the efficiency of even a modern gas boiler will be awful when only heating one room whereas a convector heater is very quick to respond, 100% efficient and don't cost much to buy.
