Cut your bills and help the environment

The price of gas and electricity are on the rise, affecting everyone in different ways.  Making small, no-cost changes can add up to big savings for your wallet and the environment!

Heating

Draw curtains over the windows at night to provide insulation for the room.

Use a timer to turn your heating off before you leave the house, and to come on again half an hour before you return, instead of leaving it on all day.

Keep your outside doors shut, and block up obvious draughts like the letterbox.

Turning your thermostat down by 1ºC could cut your heating bills by up to 10% and save you around £100 per year.

Turn radiators down in rooms which you only use occasionally

Move furniture away from radiators or heaters to let the heat into the room.

Electricity

Switch off your electrical appliances at the wall, not just with the ‘standby’ button, as this still uses almost as much power as when they are fully turned on.

Don’t leave the fridge door open!  Also try not to put hot food straight into the fridge, but allow it to cool down first.

Unplug mobile phones, shavers and electric toothbrushes when they are fully charged, otherwise they will keep using electricity.

Switch your lights off when you’re not using them.

Only wash full loads and use the economy programme.  Modern washing powders will be just as effective at a low temperature wash.

Replace normal light bulbs with energy saving bulbs – they can save you up to £78 of electricity per bulb, and last up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs.

If possible, moved the fridge and freezer away from heat sources including direct sunlight. 

Clean the condenser coils at the back of the fridge and freezer.  If your freezer isn’t full fill the empty spaces was crunched up paper or bubble wrap

Cooking

Match the size of the ring to the size of the saucepan or you will be paying to heat the air.  Also use a lid on saucepans, so the contents heat more quickly.

When cooking vegetables turn off the heat 5 mins before the end of the cooking time – they will finish cooking in the steam.

Use a steamer to cook vegetables – this uses only one element to cook two or three vegetables.

Hot water

Is your water too hot?  Your thermostat shouldn't need to be set any higher than 60ºC/140ºF, which is a comfortable temperature for most people.

A dripping hot water tap wastes more energy than you expect, so make sure to fix leaking taps and turn them off fully.

If the water is heated by an electric immersion turn it on half an hour before you need it and turn it off once finished. 

Washing 

Dry your clothes outside when possible.

If using a tumble dryer use the spin dry cycle before putting the clothes in the tumble drier.  Clean out the fluff filter! 

Switch off the tumble drier when it has finished – it can use a lot of energy when on standby

For more tips and advice on saving energy in the home visit http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

For free information or advice, please call the Home Heat Helpline on 0800 33 66 99 – they also welcome calls from concerned people calling on behalf of a relative or friend.