Save Energy in the Living room

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The lounge / living room is often the room we spend the most time in. Before the advent of central heating it was probably the one room that was the warmest in the house thanks to a well-stoked fire.

 

Today the lounge is normally home to all sorts of electrical stuff like TVs and stereos. These all represent energy saving opportunities.

 

POSITIVE STEPS:

 

  Switch stuff off:

 

It’s worth counting up what electronics you have in your lounge. Certainly the electronic in the average lounge can easily run to half a dozen items. All of these can consume a lot while on, with the TV usually taking the energy consumption crown – especially the ever-larger models around these days. Switching these off when not in use will give good savings.

 

Of course all of these can be left on good old “standby” 24/7 - or properly switched off. The problem is not so much the power that they draw, but the fact that they draw it 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

 

Switching properly off can save the average lounge a similar amount electricity each day to what the whole house might consume for lighting – assuming you’re reasonably efficient in your lighting. Which is a lot of energy just waiting to be saved.

  

 

  Lighting:

If this is a room you’re going to be spending a lot of time in, it makes sense to make sure that the lighting is as energy efficient as possible. Switching to more energy efficient bulbs is the best start.

 

Take a look at the Lighting page for ideas.

 

 

  Draughts:

 

The lounge needs to be cozy, but if it’s leaking heat through draughts the heating will have to work harder and burn more fuel to do its job. Hence take time to check where draughts are coming from. It may be that draughts are coming from outside the lounge in which case simply keeping the door shut will give much increased coziness.

 

If you have one, an open fireplace can be a big source of draughts. While a fire’s unbeatable for that cozy feeling, a chimney without a fire will simply leak warm air out as if it were an open window. What’s more cold air will sink down from outside right into your lounge.

 

For ways of dealing with this, see the Fireplaces & Chimneys section.