Tips to go green and pollute less

Don’t waste light when it’s not needed. Take advantage of natural light, paint walls and ceilings in light colors, reduce ornamental lighting to a minimum.

A 15-second elevator ride is equivalent to keeping a 60-watt light bulb on for 1 hour. Walk up instead of taking the elevator, it’s good for the environment and for getting in shape.

A low consumption bulb compared to a normal one saves almost 60 euros in a year. If we replaced five normal light bulbs (with an average use of five hours a day) with other low consumption ones, we would avoid around 250 kg of CO2 per year. It is enough to buy energy class ‘A’ lamps and bulbs to achieve greater efficiency and savings in the medium-long term.

Filling the washing machine and dishwasher saves energy consumption: you wash more things in one go. The 30 ° C temperature can be sufficient for heavily soiled laundry and saves three-quarters of the consumption of the hottest cycle. If you wash with cold water, the saving is 80% of the energy.

Devices such as televisions, computers or videos in the standby state consume 15% of their total consumption. In some homes, the consumption of these devices in ‘stand-by’ can reach 10% of the household consumption. If we place a power strip with a switch to completely cut off the current that reaches them, we can reduce 39 kg of CO2 per year.

Choosing an efficient appliance is synonymous with savings. After ten years, a period that is equivalent to the lifetime of any appliance, we will have saved 74.7% of the total electricity consumption compared to the consumption of a non-efficient appliance, which can be more than 800 euros in some cases.
Make smart use of your appliances: not opening the refrigerator more than necessary or not putting hot food in are other tips to reduce electricity consumption.

The charger consumes even when it is not connected to the phone. Unplug the mobile charger when you are not using it.

Hanging clothes outdoors instead of using an electric dryer saves about 50 kg of CO2 each year, in addition to avoiding the 318 kg of CO2 emitted in its manufacture.

Reducing the temperature just one degree is enough to cut your home energy bill by 5% -10% and avoid 300 kg of CO2 per house per year. Setting the thermostat to 20 ° C or lowering it several degrees at night are easy measures that, added to proper insulation with double glazing, weatherstripping on doors and windows, curtains or insulating the boxes where the blinds are rolled (where heat and cold penetrates) will save us up to 40% in heating consumption.

Use passive systems to cool your home, such as taking advantage of currents. You can also install ceiling fans. If you cannot do without air conditioning, protecting the outdoor unit of the appliance from direct sunlight allows you to save up to 10% in consumption… and in the electricity bill. In summer, if you set the conditioner to 25 ° C or more, you will reduce the energy consumption between 10% and 20%.

Double glazing prevents up to 350 kg of CO2 per year. The most efficient windows reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 15%. This measure requires an initial investment, but in the long term it pays off.

If you try to dress at home according to the temperature, you will avoid having to turn on the air conditioning or heating when it is not really necessary. Wear warm clothes in winter instead of turning up the heat.

The hotter the jug, the more refreshing the water it contains. Much better than chilling water in the fridge. The ‘Botijos against climate change’ campaign tells you about this simple advice.

Showering instead of bathing divides your energy use by four. You can also install a shower head and low flow taps to save about 230 kg of CO2 per year and reduce water heating costs by 10% -16%. Lowering the hot water thermostat also saves.

With a gesture as simple as boiling only the water we need when cooking, you can save about 25 kg of CO2 per year. If you are using an electric kettle, completely cover the heating elements. You can also use a pressure cooker: you will reduce cooking times, and therefore energy.

An hour of ironing is equivalent to 20 hours of television or seven hours of the computer. Try ironing large amounts of clothes and turn them off if you’re not using them.

Shopping in the neighborhood has its advantages: avoid taking the car to go to large stores. You can easily substitute plastic bags for the trolley or a backpack. Consuming local seasonal products and betting on vegetables also helps: transporting products by plane from one side of the world to the other generates about 1,700 times more CO2 emissions than if they are transported by truck 50 km.

A bus carries as many people as ten fully full cars, takes up three times less space on the road and emits half the CO2 per kilometer per passenger. A person traveling alone by car produces three times more CO2 emissions per kilometer than if they go by train.

Do not use the car on small routes where you can walk. With the bicycle you save up to 240 kg of CO2 per year. If you can’t get by without a car, at least try to get as many seats as possible on the move.

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