While energy prices are starting to drop there no doubt that come the winter we will simply turn up the heating to stay warm and simly push up the cost of your energy bills.
With so many household's still struggling to make ends meet, it has never been more important to help lower any costs you can. While your energy bills may be high, ther are several simply things you can do to lower your costs.
By making some simple changes in your home you can make some huge savings. These simple tips should help lower the cost of your energy bills.
1. Stop Using 'Standby'
Don’t leave appliances on standby, just by simply switching off appliances at the unit on the wall can save you an average of £37 per year. Appliances use a substantial amount of energy on when left on standby. Even appliances such as the mircowave, the clock on the cooker, computer and peripherals such as printers, monitors etc should all be switched off the mains unit on the wall.
Unplug any chargers when they are not being used, leaving your your phone or any other chargers pluged in when they are not being used is simply wasting electricity.
2. Energy Saving Light Bulbs
Switching to energy saving light bulbs can be a very effective way to make instant savings.
Energy saving light bulbs can cost around £3 and last around 12 longer than your standard light bulbs, and can save you an incredible £7 to £8 per year per bulb. The average household contains around 17 bulbs which means you could save upto £120 a year just by switching to energy saving light bulbs.
Look for the Energy Saving Recommended logo when you buy as it means they meet strict energy efficiency criteria specified by the Energy Saving Trust.
3. Wash Your Clothes On 30 degrees Wash
Do you know how much your washing machine costs to wash your clothes? The average washing machine can cost around 23p per wash. OK 23p sounds like nothing but throughout a whole year this can cost nearly £70.
By simply washing your clothes on 30 degree wash you could save around 40% of your electricity which means you could save a suprising £10 off your monthly bill, and with today's washing washing powders and detergents, your clothes will equally clean to that washed on 40 or 60 degree wash.
4. Steer Clear Of The Dumble Dryer
Tumble dryers are even more expensive to run than washing machines and can cost you nearly £100 just to dry your clothes.
However, hanging your washing outside to dry whenever possible will cut the cost dramatically. Asccording to the Energy Saving Trust, avoiding the tumble dryer during the summer peroids could save you £15 or more off your monthly energy bill. In the colder months try try and make use of indoor clothes airers or extend-able clothes dryers.
5. Heating Your Home
Keeping your thermostat down can help reduce your energy bill, if fact by reducing your heating by just 1°C can cut upto 10% off the cost of heating your home.
Try to find ways to help stop heat from escaping, try using draught excluders and insultion around doors and windows, drawing curtain in the colder months will also help keep the heat in. In an un-insulated house 26% of heat is lost through the roof and 33% is lost through the walls, so loft and cavity-wall insulation is worth the investment.
6. Defrost Your Fridge and Freezer Regularly
Keeping your fridge and freezer defrosted on a regular basis will keep them running as efficiently as possible. Keeping the freezer full will also help maximise its efficiency, but avoid overfilling the fridge. Make sure the doors are always shut properly and leaving them opened for longer then needed.
7. Don't Overfill Your Kettle
When filling up your kettle, only use as much water as you really need. Heating water with a kettle can use up alot of electricity and its easy to overfill the kettle when making just one cup of tea. The average person tends to boil twice as much water then actually needed. By not overfiling the kettle you save £10 - £15 per year on your energy bill.
8. Always Load Up Your Dishwasher
You should never use your dishwasher when it is only half full. One dishwasher cycle use's alot of energy and about 80% of the energy used is to heat the water. You should always do the same with washing machines and tumble dryers, they are all more energy efficient if they are fully loaded.
You can save even more money if you use an economy wash or a 30°C wash for a washing machine. Although the heat for these washes are lower, with today's washing powders and detergent you will get an equally good wash even with a lower temperature.
9. Saving When Cooking
Simply things such as putting lids on the saucepans when cooking can help reduce cooking times, using steamers are also a great way of saving energy because they stack on top of the other so you can cook multiple things with the heat from one hob.
10. Turning Out The Lights
Last but not least, try turning out the light when you leave the room leaving the lights on when they are not needed is just a waste of money, even if you have energy saving light bulbs you can still make further saving by turning off the light when they are not needed.
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