Being energy efficient this Christmas

*This post is written in paid collaboration with E.ON

We caved early this year and got our tree at the end of the first week of December (I’ve got all my fingers crossed that it is going to make it until the big day!). This is the first Christmas that Mimi is really excited about and she was beyond hyped to decorate a tree so we got a big one and she loved every second of filling it with our random mix of baubles that we have collected over the years – definitely no snazzy curated theme for our tree! We have some special additions to the bauble collection this year as I’ve joined energy supplier, E.ON‘s campaign to raise awareness about energy efficiency over the festive period.

They have made some very cool ‘smart baubles’ that are heat responsive. As we spend more time at home at this time of year, the temptation is to crank up the heating to make our homes cosy and festive-feeling meaning we are at risk of wasting precious energy (on average bills are about £50 more than normal in December to prove the point).

So, let me tell you a little more about these smart baubles and what we can all be doing to make this month more sustainable. It is the first Christmas that we’ll be spending at home, just the three of us. We’ll go to family for lunch and have family to us for Boxing Day but I’m very excited about Christmas Eve and morning just us three. There’s always that temptation to overheat the house to make it feel homely and cosy. However, the optimum temperature for a home is 18-21 degrees and the clever E.ON smart baubles shine green when my home is in that good range. However, if I have the heating on too high the baubles change to red, too low and they change to blue. It’s a great visual reminder to make sure that we don’t waste heating and if I feel cold whilst the baubles are green all I have to do is pop on an extra layer. It’s too easy to turn a blind eye to the negative choices we make when it comes to our climate so a daily reminder is nothing but a good thing in my book.

There are lots of ways that E.ON are helping their customers to be as energy efficient as possible. Firstly, they now provide 100% renewable electricity to all of their customers’ homes at no extra cost. They also now offer smart thermostats and smart meters, both of which give the customer far more control over their use of energy and far more awareness of what is being used – until relatively recently the first we knew of how much energy we were using was at the end of the month with the arrival of the bill. But now being able to see exactly what temperature your home is and how much energy has been used will enable customers to change their behaviour to prevent waste.

E.ON also make energy efficient boilers meaning less gas is used and heating bills should be less too. You can read more about the different things that can be done at home to save energy here.

I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas and I can’t wait to be back here a lot more in the new year as Mimi is starting pre-school so I’m going to have lots more time to dedicate to the blog (and I promise to layer up whilst working from home rather than cranking up the heat!).

Katy x