All The Frugal Ladies Personal finance with a feminine touch
A great initiative is to get your children thinking about energy saving from a young age. Around the home, there are all manner of tricks and tips to help guide them towards an energy efficient lifestyle.
Here are a few common ones that are helpful, easy and fun to teach. They aren’t necessarily the most radical changes but they are tips kids will be able to understand and (hopefully) appreciate with ease.
Close your closet door
Closing your closet door is a simple energy saving tip. Your wardrobe doesn’t need to be climate controlled in the first place and keeping these doors closed saves your heating and cooling system from working as hard because it reduces the surface area.
The temperature disparity is even more noticeable if your closet is against an outside wall, as this causes the outside temperature to more actively conflict with the desired temperature inside.
A fun tactic to make your children more aware is saying that by keeping the closet doors closed, you’re keeping the boogie man away! That should have them clambering to close the doors. (At your own risk though – this may make them scared of bedtime and opening the closet to get dressed!)
Limit hot water
As hot water is one of the biggest drains on your energy bill, teach your kids that it’s a luxury and a scarce resource. Just waiting for hot water to heat consumes a litre or so.
Get them to use hot water in moderation, from washing their hands in cold water or getting them to take shorter showers. Even try telling them about the effectiveness of cold clothes washing – if they’re ready to be taught about laundry!
Switch off appliances when not in use (vampire power)
Getting your children to turn off appliances at the wall is a habitual awakening that stands them in good stead for the future. Perhaps start with basic kitchen appliances like your blender, kettle, toaster, microwave etc. A great idea is to gently remind them while you’re in the kitchen baking a cake or cooking dinner with them.
A fun tool for children is to teach them about the term ‘vampire power’, which is an actual term for the small amount of power continuously used by chargers plugged into a switched-on socket.
Turn down thermostat a couple degrees
Teach the little ones the trade-off between putting on a sweater and turning up the thermostat, obviously favouring the former. When it’s cold, increase the temperature a little – you don’t want it to be so cold that you can see your breath; use a good degree of logic – but make sure your children understand that heating is a costly expense and not to be used liberally. The first step should always be to put on a sweater.
