Women vs. Men: Who is the biggest household energy waster?

Ask any household in the country whether saving money on their energy bills is something that concerns them and you would be greeted with a resounding answer of “yes”. We’d all like to drive our power bills down, but when it comes down to it, do we do enough to reduce our consumption?

Monitoring our energy consumption has become a widely practised habit among households all over the UK. It has become apparent that it pays to be careful with how much energy you use, as consumers have saved substantial sums by adopting energy-conserving techniques and switching to a cheaper tariff. This has triggered a huge army of energy-saving crusaders, vowing to curb their bad energy-wasting habits once and for all.

It’s the age-old battle of the sexes, men vs. women, but when it comes to practising energy-saving habits, which gender comes out on top?

Men are more likely to waste energy

According to research by energy price comparison experts, Love Energy Savings, 57.3% of people surveyed claimed that men were more likely to waste energy around the house.

You might have imagined that the vote was swayed by female respondents, however, as half (52.2%) of the votes were from men, it appears that they are quite aware of their own bad energy habits. Women didn’t come out of the survey altogether saintly, as 38.6% of people thought that they were the worst culprits for wasting energy.

Proactive energy saving

The energy we waste in our households can easily be conserved by being more conscious about how much we actually need to use. Did you know that most of our household energy is wasted in the kitchen, through cooking and using appliances?

If you use an electric hob to heat food, turn the hob off before the food is fully cooked, as it will stay hot enough to cook your food while it cools and turns off. If you use a dishwasher, ensure that it is completely full before you turn it on to avoid multiple washes, which can waste huge amounts of water and energy.

Walk around your home and make sure that appliances are unplugged at the wall when not in use, instead of leaving them on standby, and switch lights off when you leave a room. While these measures may seem pedantic at first, they will soon become a habit and eventually you could save yourself a substantial amount of money from doing so.