5 appliances that make your living room more eco friendly

As the hub of your house, the living room is often where lights and screens are left on and radiators turned up to the max. These smart, energy-efficient appliances help ensure your favourite room isn’t increasing your carbon footprint unnecessarily.

Earlier in 2022, LG released a new series of TVs — OLED — that have sustainability as one of their centre focus points. They’re produced without backlights and with less material than others, and when they’re switched on, they produce fewer air pollutants and toxic substances. They’ve been certified as Eco Products, with higher rates of recycling elements, too. Their Posé model in the range is particularly beautiful, coming on its own stand with a media pocket at the back for magazines and books. It’s been created with design in mind, to look good from all angles with an inbuilt art gallery to display when you’re not watching the screen (which has a blue light filter to be kinder to eyes).

Installing a smart heat controller can cut down your energy use and be a more sustainable way of heating, with the added benefit of reduced bills at the end of the month. Netatmo is a French company producing a range of smart devices for the house, like their Smart Thermostat. It has its own ability to set heating schedules for your home — setting a schedule is a more sustainable option, with your home being heated to suit you without needing to be on all the time. It can be controlled remotely through the app and can work with smart assistants, like Alexa and Google.

Dusk Lighting specialise in creating lighting design for the home, and this one comes as one of their low-energy products. The 33w LED ceiling pendant is finished in a gold leaf effect, formed of a twisted design that appears like two rings dangling from the ceiling. It’s purposely produced to have low maintenance costs and to be energy efficient (LED lights are capable of turning around 70% of their energy into light, reducing energy waste). The pendant light can’t be dimmed but creates an overall warm white glow to light up your living space.

A new one to add to their collection, this heater saves up to 50% energy (compared to other types of heaters and heating methods) with environmentally-friendly infrared heating technology and low energy consumption. It’s got a minimalist design, standing as a sole black or white panel, but it’s really the eco-friendly nature of the heater that’s the focus. It’s been created to heat a room up to 30m2 and uses all of its power to heat, cutting down on wasted energy. Once the room reaches around 24 degrees, it automatically switches off to avoid further waste. It also doesn’t blow air, burn oxygen or raise dust like more traditional heating systems, keeping humidity balanced in the room.

All of GTech’s products are created to have a long run time, giving a lengthy clean running on less charge — in turn saving money and reducing your carbon footprint. The GTech System runs as two lightweight cordless vacuums (one handheld and one upright) to provide cleaning for the whole room. Watch this space, though, as GTech are currently working on new products that will have a product life of 20 years — this is their bid to stop the cycle of households having to replace their vacuums so often and ultimately cut down on landfill waste.