Published: 01/11/2021
Some quick tips to save energy and lower your bills as prices rocket up!
There are many things you can do to cut your energy use and bills, so check out our quick tips to see what you may easily save.
Understanding your energy bill
Typical energy bills can be confusing. Understanding them goes a long way to helping you control your home energy usage at home.
This video from Home Energy Scotland provides good information.
Savings of around £35 a year may be made just by remembering to switch off standby mode.
Some satellite and digital TV recorders may need to be left plugged in so they can keep track of any programmes you want to record, but nearly all electrical and electronic appliances can be switched off at the plug without losing their programming.
Check the instructions for any appliances you aren’t sure about.
Find out which appliances use most energy in your home.
Using your kitchen appliances more sparingly you can save around £22 a year from your bills:
Fit a water efficient shower head if your shower takes hot water straight from your boiler or hot water tank. This reduces your hot water usage while retaining the sensation of a powerful shower.
This could save a four-person household as much as £30 a year on gas for water heating, and a further £45 a year on water bills if water is metered.
Calculation is based on the assumption that a family of four takes 20 showers a week and replaces a 10 litre/minute power-shower head with a 7.7 litre/min water efficient shower head, and the family are charged £2.68 per cubic meter of water used (includes sewage charge).
Spending one minute less in the shower each day will save up to £4 a year off your energy bills, per person. With a water meter this could save a further £7 off annual water and sewerage bills. it would lead to a total saving of £47 a year if everyone in a four-person household did this.
Find out more about why we should all be saving water.
You will lose some heat through draughts around doors and windows, gaps around the floor, or through the chimney unless your home is very new.
Professional draught-proofing can cost around £200, but can save around £25 a year on energy bills. DIY draught proofing can be much cheaper.
Installing a chimney draught excluder alone could save around £18 a yearl.
Find out more about reducing home heat loss.
Most money spent on fuel bills goes on hot water and heating.
You could save around £70 a year (and cut your carbon-emissions by 300kg) by installing a room thermostat, programmer and thermostatic radiator-valves and using them efficiently.
If you’ve a full set of controls, turning down the temperature just one degree can save around £55 a year.
However old your boiler the right controls will let you:
More about thermostats and heating controls.
Smart heating controls are the latest innovation allowing you to control your heating remotely via an app, meaning that you can control the temperature of your home from anywhere, at any time of day.
Smart meters with in-home display or energy monitor can help save energy by increasing awareness of usage, and cut waste. Government estimates that smart meters could typically help reduce a household’s electricity use by 3% and gas use by 2%.
Find out more about smart meters.
LED lights available in a variety of shapes, sizes and fittings can be bought that are bright enough to replace halogens, and regular energy saving bulbs.
If the average household replaced all of their bulbs with LEDs, it would cost about £145 and save about £30 a year on bills. More here.
Turn your lights off when you’re not using them. Switching a light off for just a few seconds, will save you more energy than it takes for the light to start up again, regardless of the type of light.
It could save you around a pound a month!