With winter drawing in, and numerous concerns arising about low national power capacity, it’s important that we consider as many energy-saving techniques as possible. We’re delighted to welcome back Louise McCurry of Meteor Electrical to share a number of energy-saving tips for around the home.
We all use energy in our homes, quite often without realising how much we use, to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. The majority of our energy is used for heating and lighting our homes, heating water, and providing energy to our appliances.
Energy is delivered to our homes from many different places. The most common form of energy is electricity, gas and oil. But a large proportion of our energy is wasted and we need to find quick and easy ways to cut down wastage.
When trying to decide which way is best to save energy in your home, it is probably best to check out your consumption – in other words, how much you use and what it has been used for. To do this successfully you may need to sit down and go through your previous bills or consult your energy meter.
Once you have done this, you can begin to take some steps to cut down your energy bills, such as those identified below:
- INSULATION: Make your home as efficient as you can by trapping heat inside your home. The best way to do this is by making sure your home is fully insulated. If your home isn’t fully insulated, concentrate on areas that you know will lose the most heat such as your walls, windows, doors and roofs. (Something as simple as heavy curtains or draft excluders could prevent warm air from escaping.)
- MAINTENANCE: Have your boiler serviced often. This is often one of the main problems as people put this to the back of their minds, allowing small problems to turn quickly into huge problems. Quite often, a new boiler may be the best option, as it’s likely to be 30% more efficient than an old boiler.
- THERMOSTAT: Make sure your thermostat is at the right temperature for your hot water tank, as often it can be set too high or too low. Also, check to see if your tank is insulated along with the pipes as a lot of heat can escape through these pipes.
- LIGHTING: Check your lighting and make a decision on whether it is effective. Low energy LED bulbs could save you a lot of money on your energy bills as they are known to last 25 times longer than a standard bulb. Another point to consider is how often your lights are switched off once you leave a room. Home-owners tend to leave lights on and only realise their mistake a few hours later, so it’s good to get into the habit of switching them off.
- DEVICES: Many home-owners have never looked at their appliance energy labels, which are an indicator of how much energy they use. Next time you are purchasing a new appliance, go for an A-rated appliance as they will make you considerable savings over the year.
- BE SMART: Apply for a smart meter (demonstrated above). These help you to identify where energy is being consumed around the home and make steps towards cutting down wastage. British Gas estimates that 90% of households with a smart meter have made steps to improve their home energy use, and two-thirds of those who have made savings have managed to shave an average of £75 per year off their bills.
If you implement even a few of the above tips, you are sure to see a drop in your energy bills. And remember: you aren’t going to save energy if you don’t put in the effort to do something about it.