Reduce the Machine Heat

Whether you're washing your armpits, your dishes, or your smalls, machines that need to heat up water use lots of energy.

Here's a tip: if you need to mix cold water with hot to get your water at the right temperature, it probably means your hot water is too hot. And since heating water accounts for 20% of household energy use, turning your boiler down a bit can make a big difference to the CO2 coming out of your home and the gas bills coming into it.

When it comes to the dishes, a whopping 80% of the energy a dishwasher guzzles goes towards heating the water, so turn the temperature down to 55C or 50C to make some serious CO2 savings here too.

And modern detergents can thankfully get your clothes sparkling clean even at lower temperatures, so you can switch to a 30C wash and not notice the difference - except in your bank balance.

Other ways to use less of the hot stuff or keep your cleaning machines green:

• Check the settings on your boiler timer. You deserve better than the factory pre-sets, so make sure you're only heating water when you need to. And if you don’t have a timer, get one here.
• Consider switching to a mega-efficient condensing boiler - it could save a third off your heating bills, and 700 kg of CO2.
• Use cold water when you don't really need hot, like for example cleaning around the house or washing your windows. And things like micro-fibre cloths can give you a better clean without getting the bucket out at all.
• Or adjust your hot water or heating thermostat when you're not even in the house with The Heatmiser Netmonitor. It allows you to do it with a web browser or even by text message.
• Finally, a pedal-powered washing machine. Perfect if you’re married to Lance Armstrong.

More info from the Green Thing wiki >>

Here's a thing - in Iceland it actually costs more to supply cold water than it does hot. Hot running water pops straight up out of the ground, and is piped directly into homes and swimming pools. The only downside is because of all the sulphur it does whiff a bit of eggs. But you get used to that, apparently.