Talking energy with Team GB

Published 17th August 2024

As we say ‘au revoir’ to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games we talk to Team GB athletes Tom Daley and Katarina Johnson-Thompson about getting out of the Olympic bubble and reclaiming their energy.

Our Team GB athletes dug deep for their energy with astonishing performances, agonisingly close calls and some jump-out-your-seat triumphs. For Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Tom Daley it was an unforgettable event. Now, enjoying some well-deserved rest and recovery back home, our Olympic heroes talk about their simple plans for everyday living – catching their breath and using less energy, both psychically and at home.  

At home with Katarina Johnson-Thompson

When she’s not running, jumping and throwing things, KJT loves being at home. Now she’s back in the UK from Paris, like anyone else she can be found indulging in a box set. “Succession and White Lotus were favourites last year”, but she confesses that, “after a hard training session, I put on Love is Blind from start to finish. It’s my guilty pleasure!”

One thing that KJT certainly doesn’t need to feel guilty about is conserving energy at home. Along with making small changes to reduce energy use, like unplugging appliances and switching off lights in rooms that aren’t being used, KJT has made a bigger choice too. “To try to be more sustainable my car is now a hybrid. So, half of the time I’m running only on electricity.

Tom’s 10 tips for saving energy

He’s one of Britain’s best-loved, best-known and highest-performing athletes. But Tom Daley has kept a down-to-earth attitude, especially in his approach to living sustainably and conserving energy at home.

Now he’s back home from Paris – for a while at least, Tom shared his top 10 tips for energy-saving, money-saving and stress-busting habits:

1. Batch cooking: To save time and energy, cook as much as you can in one go. Then just pop the rest in the freezer so you’ve always got a tasty, healthy, home-cooked meal waiting for you.
2. Air-fryers and slow cookers: You can cook a meal for about the same cost as powering a lightbulb with a slow cooker. So these modern kitchen gadgets can help cut your energy bill.
3. LED Lightbulbs: We’ve switched all our lightbulbs to LED because they use up to 80% less power than old-fashioned bulbs.
4. strong>30°C – see the savings: Set the washing machine and dishwasher to 30°C. It cleans just as well but could cut the energy usage by 40%.
5. Switch off at the socket: Turn your plugs off at the socket when you’re not using the appliance. (Some things like TVs still use quite a lot of energy in standby mode.)
6. Turn down one degree: By turning your thermostat down by one degree, you could save up to 10% off your energy bills. The weather changes daily, so should the temperature on your thermostat.
7. Unblock the radiator: Move your furniture away from the radiators to make sure they don’t block the heat.
8. Stay frost-free: Defrost your fridge / freezer regularly to stop it using more energy than it needs.
9. Radiator: Fitting thermostatic radiator valves means you could control the temperature in each room separately.
10. Hot water: An immersion heater only needs to be on for one hour to give you enough hot water for the day.