Minimise Energy Bills This Winter
With the long dark days, and terrible weather outside, how can you minimise energy bills over the winter months?
1. Turn the thermostat down
Even just reducing it by 1°c should reduce your heating bills by around 10% which could save you up to £55 a year.
The Department of Energy estimates savings of about 1 % for each degree change per 8 hours, and recommends turning thermostats back 7 – 10 degrees from their normal settings for 8 hours per day to achieve annual savings of up to 10%.
One way to help you automatically turn the heating down and save energy is with a smart thermostat, which automatically senses when the house is occupied, and adjust heating accordingly. See this article discussing the best smart thermostat.
2. Turn the lights off
Simply turning the light off when you leave a room can make a big difference in how much electricity you are using. Similarly, don’t leave electronic appliances on standby; televisions etc. still use a surprising amount of power if they’re not switched off properly.
Also, the modern LED lights, especially those on the blue end of the light spectrum can also help to make sleep more difficult, read more to find out more.
3. Fill up your appliances
If you are going to use a dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer make sure they are full when you switch them on.
If you only have a small amount of washing up do it by hand rather than in the machine and if you have washing to dry why not hang it out for a while and then finish it off in the tumble dryer?
Nothing ever gets properly dry outside in the winter but this should save a fair amount of drying time.
4. Only boil the water you need
Don’t fill the kettle to the top unless you’re going to use all the water.
It takes a long time to heat a full kettle compared to one cup and that’s all wasted energy.
For example, this article discusses how you could save £11.68 a year, and lots of time waiting!
- The Energy Saving Trust offers a number of great ways to save water here.
5. Make sure you have good insulation
There’s no point heating the house if all that warmth is disappearing through the roof and walls.
There are lots of grants available to help improve home energy efficiency at low or no cost to you.
- Click here to find out more.
6. Use low energy lightbulbs
Today’s light bulbs use a fraction of the energy of those just a few years ago.
For example if you look at the comparison charts on this website, an LED bulb only consumes 8.5 watts of energy compared to the old 60Watt incandescent bulb.
This simple change could also save around £55 each year and while the bulbs may be more expensive, they will last a lot longer.
- How do energy-saving light bulbs work? Click here to find out!
7. Make sure you’re on the best energy tariff available
This is probably the best way to save money and is surprisingly easy.
You’ll need bills going back a few months and a good comparison website to compare rates for your usage.
One of the easiest ways to cut your gas and electric bills is to make sure you get a good energy deal in the first place.
8. Be wise with your energy bill credit
People often accidentally overpay their bills if they are no direct debit.
So, if you pay by direct debit and your estimated bill is more than your meter reading, you might be best to ‘bank’ that credit for the winter which is often a more expensive time of year.
This can be better than claiming any over-payment back or asking for your monthly payment to be reduced.
- Find out all you need to know about getting a prepayment meter installed right here.
No. 10 – Would a fixed tariff be better?
Investigate whether you’d be better on a fixed tariff; give your energy supplier and call and see if there is anything they can do to reduce your bills.
It is in their interest to help and retain your custom.
Why are we writing this article?
We are a loan comparison site, and help people to make an informed choice about personal loans and credit.
Our customers are those who may have a poor credit score, and we, therefore, understand that making the most of every pound is important.
We write these articles to hopefully be a little helpful?
Clare McDonald
As a mother of two, Clare knows the importance of being careful with money, so writes posts from personal experience. Clare also loves to find great deals, so shares her finding here.
