Top Tips For Saving Energy In The Home To Cut Down The Bills

By admin, February 22, 2013

With gas and electricity bills in the UK constantly on the rise, many people are looking at ways to improve energy efficiency in their home.

Here I look at a number of great ways of not only saving energy at home but also saving a fair bit of money too.

Keep In The Heat

There are a number of measures you can take in order to keep in the heat.

Curtains are one of the simplest measures to utilise in regards to saving energy; after all many of us have them fitted in our homes. Simply drawing them in the evenings and opening them in the morning to let a little natural light in can greatly help keep the warmth in.

Give The Home A Makeover

Now I don’t mean in any 60 Minute Makeover home decorating kind of way, but looking at the fundamentals such as cavity insulation, insulating hot water pipes and tanks and lagging the boiler. It is also worth getting your boiler serviced each year, as inefficient boilers can end up costing you much more on your energy bills than a properly maintained boiler ever would.

Loft insulation is another great way to lock in the heat, saving energy and a few quid to boot.

If you have the funds available, double or triple glazing offers another way to keep the warm in and might make the home a little quieter too, at least from external noise.

Once you keep the heat in, knocking the thermostat down by a single degree will then actually cut down your heating usage by as much as ten per cent – a great way of saving energy.

Standby Is Not Your Friend

Far too many of us are guilty of leaving gadgets and gizmos on standby rather than turning them off at the mains. It might not seem like much, but it is estimated that as much as £730m is wasted across the UK by having DVDs, TVs, computers and the like on standby rather than switched off.

Light Bulbs

By fitting energy efficient light bulbs in your home instead of regular bulbs, it may cost more in the short term, but in the long term it will save money as they not only last longer, but will also help cut your electricity bill down.

Hang Me Up To Dry

Investing in indoor clothes and hanging up your washing the old school way can also cut down the bills over using a tumble dryer, so if you haven’t already started airing your laundry out the old fashioned way, today could be the perfect day to start.

Other Measures

Draft excluders, only using the amount of water you really need, showers over baths – there are a number of other great ways to save a pretty penny on your energy bills, so experiment and see which measures work well in your household.

So if you’ve had a nasty surprise when your energy bill arrived this month, challenge yourself to save energy.

Louisa Jenkins is an energy expert who offers people advice on saving energy in their home.