Sustainability: Top Tips for Saving Energy and Water

Accommodation and Commercial Services, with the ACS Green Impact team produce a sustainability initiatives for the students living in our residences. With the rise of the current energy crisis, the team has kindly provided tips for students on how they can save energy and water during these challenging time. 

1st October saw the UK’s energy price cap lifted meaning an increase in bills for most people. This, along with concerns about climate change has meant that energy and water usage is at the forefront of a lot of peoples’ minds 

Whilst all of your bills are included in your current rent at the University of Sheffield accommodation, so you won’t see the extra costs, it’s important to consider reducing your usage of water and energy to reduce your environmental impact. 

It’s also great to get into the routine of reducing your usage ahead of living out in the private sector in future, where you are likely to be responsible for paying your own utility bills.

You can find some tips from Green March on how you can reduce your impact below:



Why not post a pic of your best energy saving tips? Tag @sheffuniaccom for the chance to win a prize.



Reducing Energy and Saving Water Tips 

We have a climate emergency and we all need to do our bit to reduce our impact on the environment around us. Even small steps to reduce our energy usage can help if we all get involved and make the change together.

Not only will you be able to feel good about reducing your carbon footprint, but you can also start building those good energy-saving habits ready for when you move out into private accommodation. You’re more likely to have to pay for your own utility bills then, so now is a great opportunity to get into the swing of those positive habits.

We are going to be sharing tips on saving energy, whether that is gas, electricity or water - you may have even seen some articles about this already! 

Over the next month, we'll be monitoring energy and water usage, and by the end of May, the block that has reduced their usage the most will have the chance to win GeniUS vouchers. 

There will be a prize for a flat in the block that has the highest percentage decrease in energy consumption. 

To get us started, take a look at these tips on saving water:

How to save energy whilst living in our residences

Here are some tips on how you can save electricity whilst living in our residences, and these are some of the habits you can carry on when moving into private residences or moving back home. 

Tip 1. Close the curtains

•  Close the curtains in evenings to prevent heat from escaping through windows.

Tip 2. Make use of draft excluders

• Make use of draft excluders on doors (especially external ones!).

Tip 3. Avoid standby mode

• Turn off computers and televisions at the switch and avoid standby mode or leaving your laptop charger plugged in.

Tip 4. Last out- lights out!

• Turn all lights off when rooms are not in use - Last out - lights out!

Tip 5. Don't overfill 

• Don’t overfill your kettle. - only use sufficient water for the number of drinks. 

Tip 6. Free washing up bowls

• Make use of the free washing up bowls provided instead of just running water down the sink - this saves water and the energy used to heat it up.

Tip 7. Layer-up

• It’s still important to make sure your property is reasonably warm to avoid damp and other issues but why not layer-up, putting on a jumper or cardigan if you’re starting to feel chilly.

Tip 8. Use your microwave instead of the oven

• If you can use your microwave instead of the oven to cook certain foods, do. They use less energy than ovens because they only heat the food, not the air around it. For example, cooking a baked potato in the microwave uses 25% of the energy it takes to cook it in the oven.

Tip 9. Wash your clothes at 30°C instead of 40.

• Wash your clothes at 30°C instead of 40.  The energy savings of a reduction of only 3° in the average wash temperature of people in Europe is equivalent to the emissions produced by more than 127,000 cars.

Tip 10. Shower in less than 6 minutes

• Shower in less than 6 minutes. For example, cutting your daily shower from eight minutes to four minutes saves around 36L of water.

If you have any tips you’d like us to share with your fellow students, please email us on greenteam@sheffield.ac.uk with the subject line “Energy Saving tips”.