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Tips for saving money on your energy bills

Written by: Shani Fowler

With energy prices increasing year on year it’s becoming increasingly difficult to balance the household budget – we barely have the spare cash it would take to heat up this political hot potato. Gone are the days we could leave our heating on whilst we were out so it would be nice and warm when we got home. Here are a few tips for saving money on your energy bills.

1. Turn Off The Lights.  If you are not in a room turn off the lights.  There is no point in having your house illuminated to the max in the rooms you are not in.  Also use energy efficient bulbs in the rooms you are in.

2.  Turn Off The Television. Make sure your television is not left on standby when you are not watching it.  We have all become lazy and it’s easier to just flick a button on the remote to switch off the television rather than take that little walk to it and switch it off manually.

3.  Turn The Heating Off Earlier Switch the heating off at least an hour before bed.   The house stays warm for a while once the heating is switched off, and so go to bed immediately after you switch it off can actually make you too warm once you snuggled under the duvet.  Plus heat rises and with most bedrooms being upstairs it will be warmer up there for longer too.

4. Clever Cooking.  When making a meal using the oven, are you making the most of the energy you are using?  Just sticking in the chicken nuggets and chips is not making best use of the energy that heating the oven requires.  Have you anything else you can put in there? Maybe a pizza that can be used for packed lunches next day.  Maybe make some Yorkshire puddings that you can then stick in the freezer for later.  Make the most of the energy you have to use each time you use the oven.

5.  Avoid Using The Tumble Dryer.  Since Britain is not known for  its fabulous weather  I wouldn’t be without my dryer  but I try to limit the amount I have to use it.  It is quite expensive to run the dryer so I try to synchronise my washing with the weather forecast where I can.   Undoubtedly thought from time to time we have to use the dryer so remember to keep the filters free from the fluff it collects.  Fluff in the filter makes the drying take longer, causing the dryer to become less efficient with the energy.

6.  Use Appliances Wisely.   Our morning brew is important to us but if you only need a cup of water boiling, just boil enough.  Don’t fill the kettle to capacity to boil just enough water for one cup of tea.

7.  Shower Instead Of  A Bath.  Whilst it is lovely to relax in the bath and ease away the stresses and strains of the day, a shower requires   less water to heat and so is much cheaper.  So swap some of your baths for a shower.  Also this is less water consumption if you are on a  water meter – a double saving whammy!

8.  Is There Help Out There?  Sometimes there are government initiatives or grants available to make your home more energy efficient.  These initiatives are not always “in your face” advertised so it’s worth checking out if there are national or regional ones with Local Councils or Government Websites.

9. Go To Bed Early  Quite often we can find ourselves sitting up late, flicking through the t.v channels, hopping from one to the other without really watching it.  In the winter time it’s quite nice to get the heating off, get in your jim jams and snuggle under the duvet down with a book or maybe your loved one!  A few early nights mean no energy consumption and maybe a little more beauty sleep too.

10.  Can You Walk To Your Destination? Energy usage isn’t just contained to the home.  We have a high energy consumption with vehicle fuel use too.  Having a car used to be classed as a luxury.  Two and three car homes are not unusual now, highlighting our dependency on driving everywhere.  Quite often we drive to the shops or to school, wrestle with the parking and stress ourselves out  when it could be maybe just as easy to walk.  Not only saving a bit of money but maybe helping shed a few pounds our reliance on vehicles has helped us to gain!

 

We all need to take steps to reduce our energy consumption to help with the purse strings, but  not only does it help with the purse strings, with a few little easy changes we are all contributing to a cleaner environment too.

Visit USwitch r helpful switch and save energy site here: