FREE Energy Saving Tips

This time of year can feel a little daunting when it comes to your domestic bills, so we’ve come up with a list of energy-saving tips that are completely free. They are easy to incorporate into your everyday life and you won’t have to invest your money to start saving.

Tip number 1: Shorten the length of your showers

Just shortening your showers can annually save you £65 for an average family of four, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

Tip number 2: Bleed your radiators

If you can hear a lot of gurgling coming from your radiators, cold patches at the top, or if your radiators are taking a while to heat up you should bleed them. SSE Energy has a helpful step-by-step guide that explains how to bleed your radiators. The process is very simple just make sure you know how to do it before starting.

Tip number 3: Drop a degree on your thermostat

Lowering your thermostat by one degree can result in an annual saving of £115 for a normal home, according to British Gas. The World Health Organization has said that in winter most healthy adults require a temperature of 18°C however most of us have our thermostat set to 20°C. This doesn’t include the elderly and extremely young who usually require a higher temperature in their homes.

Tip number 4: keep your doors closed

An effective way to reduce draughts and keep the heat in is to keep the doors closed whilst you’re in a room. This will help keep the heat in and reduce the amount of work your central heating does.

Tip number 5: Reduce the heat of your radiators

By simply going around your home and turning down the radiators in unused rooms from 5 to 2.5 or 3 the government estimates that you could save £70 annually. Just make sure you don’t turn it down any lower than the snowflake setting as this is the frost prevention setting. This will allow a small amount of hot water to flow through the system and prevent the pipes from freezing.

Tip number 6: Reduce the flow temperature of your combi boiler

The flow temperature refers to the water that circulates throughout the boiler system and this is what your radiators are. It typically operates outside of its most effective range since the default setting is higher than is required. Innovation Organization Nesta has created a money-saving boiler challenge that it claims could reduce gas bills by an average of 9% (£112 annually).

Tip number 7: Change the settings on your TV

In an average household, we watch TV for four hours. This consumes a lot of energy, and most modern TVs usually have settings that help the perform as energy efficiently as possible. On most modern TVs you can find a “Power Saving” setting which uses less electricity by reducing the brightness. Make sure you’ve got a sleep timer set up. This will turn your TV off after a predetermined period of inactivity.

Tip number 8: Do fewer loads of washing

When you do wash your clothes make sure you’re not just washing a few items and you’re doing a full load each time. Washing your clothes at a lower temperature like 30°C could help you save up to £34 a year.

Tip number 9: Clean the filters in your dryer

Lint and dust can build up quickly in your dryer which makes your dryer work harder to dry your clothes. The filter is easily accessible on most tumble dryers. It simply needs emptying before each use.

Tip number 10: Use the microwave instead of the oven

Microwaves use far less energy to heat meals. Where it’s possible try and use your microwave over your oven as it requires a lot more energy. On average two baked potatoes take 10 minutes to cook in the microwave with an energy cost of £0.063. Two potatoes take 1 hour in the oven with the cost of £0.248.

 

All these energy-saving tips require little effort and no financial input. They may not seem like they’d save you much money on their own but putting multiple of these tips into practice can result in a big saving each year.

 

If you’d like any information on insulating your home this winter please contact us

Call us on  0114 323 0012

or request a call back HERE