The lights are on, but nobody’s home. Yep, we’re all guilty of leaving the lights on every now and again. However new research, conducted by contemporary homeware and furniture retailer Utility Design, as reported by House Beautiful, reveals the shocking extend of how often us Brits forget to flick off the light switch.
According to the study, Brits are wasting billions on unnecessary electricity consumption. Moreover, according to another study published in 2011 Britain is the tenth worst offender in the world when it came to carbon dioxide emissions directly caused by power consumption.
With great power comes great responsibility, so with this and the research from Utility Design in mind, here are 4 IDEAL reasons to be mindful and switch off your lights off.
YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE
You may think that leaving one little light on occasionally won’t matter, but you’re not the only one doing it. We were shocked to discover that 10% (or a whopping 6.5 million) of us regularly leave our lights on when leaving a room at home. And across the UK, 21% (or an estimated 14 million) of us regularly leave the lights on when leaving the house (for example when we go to work). Oh and 4.7 million people admit that they usually leave at least one light on when going to bed. That’s a lot of lights left on unnecessarily.
YOU’RE FLUSHING MONEY AWAY IF YOU DON’T
Based on industry averages and the above figures, those of us who regulary leave our lights on when leaving a room while we’re still at home are contributing to an estimated £14,950,000 of wasted energy per day across the UK. If you leave the lights on when leaving the house, you’re contributing to an estimated £10,780,000 per day. And if you’re leaving them on while you sleep, over an average eight-hour period of shut eye this equates to £3,619,000 spent per night across the country – a very costly night light indeed.
YOUR CONTRIBUTING TO CRAZY CARBON EMISSIONS BY LEAVING YOUR LIGHTS ON
While it’s stating the obvious that leaving lights on will contribute to carbon dioxide emission levels, we were again shocked to learn by how much. Cumulatively speaking, leaving the lights on when leaving a room creates 37,440,000 kg of carbon dioxide emissions, or the equivalent of 62 flights around the world. Those of us who regularly leave the lights on at work are contributing to a whopping 26,880,000 kg of carbon dioxide emissions – comparable to 45 flights around the world. And finally, Utility Designs calculations suggest that UK’s night lights create a huge 8,985,600 kg of nightly carbon dioxide emissions – that’s the equivalent to around 15 flights around the world.
YOU’LL SAVE MONEY BT TURNING THEM OFF
By remembering to turn down the light’s not only will you cut down on the UK’s emissions, you’ll save money on bills, too. Yes, be aware that if you leave the lights on when you go to work, it could be costing you almost £200 more each year – which is enough of an incentive to do an extra check before you head out the door.
Also, if you leave the lights on during the day, from a personal finance angle, based on an average sized household, if one person was to regularly leave lights on when leaving the room, they could easily fritter away approximately £2.30 per day in this way – adding up to more than £16 per week. This adds up to over £64 a month and exceeds more than £800 over the duration of a year.
So, by helping the environment you can also help your bank balance; socially conscious or selfish, everybody wins.