We recently surveyed our parents with pre-school children to understand their concerns around the rising cost of energy and some of the ways they are reducing their consumption at home.
Published: 31/01/2023
We recently surveyed our parents with pre-school children to understand their concerns around the rising cost of energy and some of the ways they are reducing their consumption at home.
Over half (53%) were worried about having to make changes to their energy usage that will affect their children in the next three months, while 44% have already made personal sacrifices to save energy in order to avoid making changes that impact their children.
The research revealed key areas of concern for parents, including keeping children’s bedrooms warm, making changes to children’s routines that save on energy consumption, and how to reduce energy usage without impacting their families.
Busy Bees’ Environmental Manager, Sarah Robertson, shares her top tips on how to save energy at home:
According to our research, parents are already looking for ways to keep their children warm while they sleep during colder temperatures. Using warmer bedding, thicker grow bags or warmer clothing at night (76%) and increasing the number of layers they wear while they’re in the house (68%) were among the changes made during bedtime.
Over a third (35%) of parents are also considering only heating their children’s bedrooms and not the wider house to keep costs down whilst protecting their children.
As well as keeping warm with safe winter-weight bedding and clothing, Sarah recommends switching off any electric items such as baby monitors, sound or light machines when it’s safe to do so between naps, to avoid any unnecessary energy wastage.
There are lots of ways you can provide tasty, nutritious meals for the whole family whilst also saving on energy costs. Over a third (37%) of the parents we surveyed are already considering eating the same meals they make for their children themselves, which avoids having to cook twice.
It’s also worth considering how you’re cooking the food and switching to appliances which are cheaper to run. Slow cookers and air fryers, as well as batch cooking, are great options to cut the cost of cooking and still serve healthy, delicious dinners.
If you are using the stove, try using the right-sized hob and cook with the saucepan lids on to reduce wasted energy.
Considering your home’s water usage can be a great way to reduce your energy consumption and avoid wastage. Swapping just one bath a week with a four-minute shower could save families around £20 a year on your energy bills. *1
A fifth (19%) of parents surveyed are already washing their children in the shower rather than the bath to save on their hot water bills.
Try swapping toys and screens that are battery operated or require charging for playtime using everyday household objects like boxes, pegs, bowls, or recyclable items. This can encourage your child’s creativity and imagination as well as developing essential skills like communication and hand-eye co-ordination.
Getting children outside for short periods of time to engage in active outdoor play can also help to reduce time indoors with the heating on, whilst helping children exercise and burn off energy! Of those surveyed, parents feel most confident doing activities such as heading to a park (95%), playing outside with a ball (94%), jumping in leaves (89%), children getting on a bike or scooter when it’s safe to do so (88%), and splashing in muddy puddles (85%).