Incorporating sustainability into your home

Energy-efficient appliances for eco-friendly homes

When it comes to achieving sustainable living at home, energy-efficient appliances are an easy place to start. White goods are guilty of being some of the biggest energy consumers in our homes, so keep an eye out for ways to use them more efficiently. Using the eco settings on the appliances we provide in our homes will help you save energy, as will using them during off-peak periods. Ideally, avoiding using them at all where you can makes the biggest difference. For example, drying your clothes outside (when the weather allows) not only saves electricity but also reduces moisture in your home. Using an air fryer or a slow cooker to make dinner uses less energy than an oven. It’s these small, simple changes that add up to make an impact.

Smart thermostats and energy management

Energy management is essential when you build an eco home. Simple Life homes come with smart thermostats that let you schedule the heating around your own routines. That means it can automatically switch off when you leave for work, or switch on half an hour before you get home so that it’s toasty when you walk through the door. But there are also plenty of other simple ways to reduce energy consumption at home. Try turning the radiators down in rooms you’re not using or turning off your appliances at the socket. Install energy saving LED lightbulbs that use less electricity and last longer or aim to spend less time in the shower.

Not sure how to check or set your Simple Life thermostat? Watch our How To video here. 

Simple Life’s sustainability outside of the home

Not only do we build sustainable homes, but we incorporate sustainability into the areas around our properties too. We’ve installed 22 book boxes made from recycled materials across Simple Life developments, encouraging residents to share stories and recycle their favourite reads so others can enjoy them. We also partnered with White Rose to bring clothes banks to our developments, so residents can donate their clothes after a wardrobe clear-out, as opposed to throwing them away. You can find sustainable bespoke offers on the Simple Life app, through our partners and affiliates like Oddbox, Smol and Modern Milkman.

Eco house design: built to be better

An eco-friendly house isn’t just achieved through your actions, it needs to be built that way to begin with using sustainable methods and materials. That means utilising modular building processes to reduce onsite waste and limit site deliveries, or installing solar panels on our homes and on-site wildlife areas. By factoring energy efficiency into the way we design and build our homes, they become more sustainable by default. When we compared the efficiency of homes across multiple time periods, we found that a current day Simple Life home is 25% cheaper to run annually than one built as recently as 2011, and 72% cheaper than one built as early as 1900. To get an idea of how much it would cost to run your home, try our energy efficiency calculator.

To find out more, watch How energy efficient is your Simple Life Home.