Saving Energy
Stay smart with these energy saving tips
High energy prices may want you to leave your heating off as much as possible, but there are other ways of saving money on your energy bills. After all, not having your heating on at all over Winter may lead to serious damp in your home causing health issues to you and damage to the property. We understand that it may be more difficult to pay energy bills at the moment so we have put together a few hints and tips to save energy in your home.
Number 1: Turn off standby
Having your laptop or any devices on standby uses more energy than you may think. After work every day, remember to turn off your devices to reduce the time you're charging them. This also applies to other appliances in your home like your TV, games consoles, speakers, radios, kitchen appliances and mobile phones. The best way to make sure devices aren't using power, you can switch off at the wall.
Number 2: Wash on 30°
Modern detergents now wash as well on 30° and will save you money. Try to wash full loads to reduce the number of washes you do, but make sure you've untangled your laundry before turning on as they may not wash properly. For modern machines, you could save £19 a year, more for older machines. Similar to this, try to do full loads with your dishwasher!
Depending on your tariff, washing and tumble drying your clothes in peak time can be more costly (4pm-7pm). Washing between 10pm-5am can be the cheapest time to do laundry, same as a dishwasher.
Number 3: Knowing your thermostat
You can schedule your thermostat and/or boiler to times when you need them, for example if the house is empty during certain times.
Additionally turning your thermostat down by just 1 degree can save a household 4% on energy bills or £100 a year. The WHO claims 18℃ is enough for healthy adults and may be higher for the old and young.
Number 4: Boil what you need
Kettles use about 6% of electricity supplied to homes, which is a pretty significant amount. When boiling, you can save energy by using the amount of water you actually need. Descaling regularly helps save energy too as limescale causes your kettle to use more energy than required.
Number 5: Change Flow Temperature
The flow temperature is the temperature a combi boiler heats the water to before sending to radiators. When installed, most boilers have the flow temperature set higher than they need to be. You can alter this for your radiators and water heat using the settings on your boiler. Use the manual to learn how to adjust this for your boiler. This means your boiler won't waste energy by heating to a higher, unnecessary temperature and could save 6%-8% on your bills.
If you don't have a combi boiler, there are other ways to save money on heating, by heating the person, not the house. This can be done with a hot waterbottle or electric blanket which run much cheaper than a boiler.
Number 6: Energy Saving Bulbs
Lighting uses about 12% of a household's electricity consumption. Switching to energy saving light bulbs can use about half the amount of energy than a non energy saving bulb. Of course, there will be an initial high cost, but will end up cutting your bills, saving £27 a year on average. Energy saving or LED bulbs can last up to 12 times longer than a traditional bulb, saving money longer term.
It's also worth switching off lightbulbs when you leave the room, no matter how long you're leaving for.
Number 7: Cut your shower time
Showers take up a surprisingly high amount of energy. Cutting even one minute of your shower time could save just over £200 a year in energy bills. To help with this, try timing the length of your shower or turning off the tap when lathering, and back on to rinse - maybe a bit extreme, but could save you a lot of money over the year! If not, there are plenty of water saving shower heads avaliable to buy, for a 2% saving on bills.
Number 8: Oven alternatives
Heating up your whole oven for a meal might not be the most energy efficient way to cook your food, depending on what your cooking and how many people you're feeding. For some foods like a jacket potato in a microwave uses 25% of the energy it would take in an oven.
Similarly, using an air fryer for small portions of food can use up to half the amount of energy to cook, as there is much less space to heat and can reduce the cooking time by up to 30 minutes. Air fryers can also get the same crispness you would expect in an oven, rather than using a microwave.
Slow cookers use much less electricity than an oven and are fantastic for stews, curries and for cooking meat, using much less energy, despite the longer cooking time.