Forgetful Brits wasting millions on electricity bills
With energy consumption due to rise this weekend as clocks go back research commissioned by Energenie, the manufacturer of energy saving devices, has revealed nearly three out of five (56%) UK households are more concerned than last year about the cost of their utility bills this coming winter.
Despite this and the current economic climate however, a third are forgetting to implement the simplest of energy conservation methods such as turning the lights off when not in use (38%) or turning the TV off standby (43%); potentially wasting millions of pounds every year.
Other results showed that:
A third of people leave their mobile phone charger plugged in when not charging
A third of people leave their laptop charger plugged in when not charging
A quarter leave the heating on when not in the house
Alan J. Tadd, managing director, Energenie said: “This weekend is the time when we start switching on lights and of course the heating earlier in the day so is a good time to think about how we can make attempts to keep our winter bills down. We all know that we should be turning our electrical appliances off when not in use to save energy. And when we say off, we mean off – not on standby. However, the reality is that many of us simply don’t make the effort.”
22% blame their spouse or partner for leaving the lights on and 21% blame their kids as reasons why energy saving advice is not being heeded. Two out of five households mentioned home security as the reason for leaving lights and appliances on to make the house look occupied whilst they’re out.
Tadd continued: “Many people don’t realise that by doing simple things such as turning your TV or DVD player off standby or unplugging your mobile phone charger when not in use can actually make a significant dent in your electricity bill.”
Energenie products, such as the AV Automatic Standby Shutdown for Home Entertainment Systems, offer an easy way of cutting the amount of energy used in the home, saving money on electricity bills, saving energy and reducing the risk of fires caused by electrical appliances.
The research by Energenie was conducted by Redshift amongst 1,000 UK households in October 2010.