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Living with solar panels
Learn how to make the most out of the free electricity generated by your solar panels. By making a few small changes to your routine, you can lower your electricity bills even further.
Over the year, solar panels should reduce your electricity bills. If you can make a few small changes to how you use electricity around the home, you can bring your bills down even more.
Below, you’ll find some simple tips to help you get the most from your solar panels.
Save jobs that use most electricity for the middle of the day.
Jobs such as ironing, vacuuming, cooking or washing clothes use a relatively high amount of electricity. For this reason, try to take care of these jobs during the middle of the day, when your panels will likely be producing the most electricity.
Charge electrical items during daylight hours
Remember, your solar panels won’t be generating any electricity when it’s dark. For this reason, try charging items like phones, electric toothbrushes, and laptops during daylight hours.
Cook a hot meal in the daytime
If you have an electric cooker, try cooking a hot meal in the daytime rather than in the evening. If you don’t want to eat a hot meal at lunchtime, you can always reheat the food at dinnertime. This will use less electricity than cooking from scratch.
Shower during the day
If you have an electric shower, try using it during the daytime rather than after dark. Again, this is to make use of the fact your panels will be generating during the day, but not after dark.
Remember: Your panels will produce most electricity when it is sunny, so this is the best time to use electrical appliances.
Use one major appliance at a time during daylight hours
Even when it’s sunny, your panels may not provide enough free electricity to power more than one major appliance (e.g. cooker, vacuum, kettle, iron, washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher) at a time. For this reason, it’s good to try and stick to using one major appliance at a time.
So, for example, in the daytime:
- Vacuum after the washing machine has finished, not at the same time.
- Have a shower before you turn the washing machine on.
The number of appliances you can power for free depends on the size of the panels, their location and the weather. Also, different types of appliances use different amounts of electricity so it’s not always possible to say exactly what you can use for free.
Looking for more ways to save on your electricity bill?
There are lots of easy ways to use less electricity. Click below for more handy tips.