Energy is just one of those commodities that we have to use in our daily lives. Whether it’s for keeping the house warm or watching TV, there is like a million and 1 ways that we consume gas and electricity. Therefore, a million and 1 ways we could make our homes more energy-efficient.
Below, we have highlighted practical tips to help you reduce your energy consumption – which leads to a low carbon footprint and save you some couple hundred pounds in a year.
6 Tips to Help You Save Energy and Pay Less Bill
Tip 1: Improve The Insulation Around The Home
A considerable chunk of the yearly energy bills goes into keeping the house warm. Hence, concentrating on how you can minimise the amount of heat lost during the winter months by conserving energy more efficiently can go a long way to keeping more money in your pocket.
How you achieve it:
- Cavity Wall Insulation: uninsulated home losses approximately 30% of heat through the wall. This means cavity wall insulation is one of the most effective ways you can save energy too. With cost as low as £150, it’s also one of the most cost-effective measures you can take too.
- Solid Wall Insulation: for older houses which tends to have solid walls rather than cavity wall, you can save even more money yearly by simply insulating the walls, either internally, or externally.
- Loft Insulation: your home loses heat as warm air rises and is lost through the roof. Ensuring that your attic is properly insulated and depending on the type of house, could save you as much as £200 yearly on average.
- Floor Insulation: insulating typical suspended timber flooring can save you up to £50 per annum. And it’s something you could very well handle yourself.
Tip 2: Minimizing Heating In The Home
A huge percentage of your yearly energy bills boils down to how efficient you use heating systems around the house. Reduce wastages and you reduce the amount of your energy bill in return.
How you achieve it:
- Gas Boilers: installing an efficient gas boiler can save you a lot in overall energy cost. Also, switching to a fuel with a theoretically higher combustion efficiency reduces your fuel consumption.
- Heat Pumps: consider opting for geothermal heat pumps rather than electric air-source heat pumps because they are more energy-saving friendly.
- High Heat Retention Storage Heaters: if no gas is available consider these newer types of storage heaters. Also, they are designed to store heat better than their older counterparts.
- Heating Controls: Make use of a smart thermostat and turn off the heating systems when no one is using it.
Tip 3: Use Energy-Efficient Glazing
Using energy-saving glazing can ensure your windows are highly thermally insulating. Thereby eliminating heat loss through the windows and reducing your overall energy consumption.
How you achieve it:
- Double Glazed Windows: have your windows fitted with two layers of glass helps to make them highly insulating from the colder air outside.
- Secondary Double Glazing: if you live in a conservation area this option is as good as if not better than double glazing, as well as providing better acoustic insulation too.
Tip 4: Light Up Your Home More Efficiently
Good lighting is synonymous with good living. Hence, you don’t need to sacrifice ambience to save energy usage. However, there is still a lot you can save by lighting up your home more efficiently.
How you achieve it:
- Use LEDs and CFLs Bulbs: they are some of the most efficient bulbs you can find and saves you a lot more energy usage compared to traditional incandescent bulbs. They are a no-brainer to have everywhere in the home, especially in places where constant illumination is required.
- Install Dimmers: You don’t always need these lights on full power except when reading or writing. Installing dimmers help regulate the amount of energy your light bulbs consume ordinarily. You can turn up the power when you need to.
- Turn Lights Off: this may be obvious but very few people follow it through. You can only be in one place at a time so turn off the lights in the bedroom and other places when chilling in the living room.
Tip 5: Get An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
An energy performance certificate is a document that sets out the energy consumption and efficiency of a property. A property can be given a score from A to G, with A being the most energy-efficient.
With an EPC, you have a working knowledge of how much it will cost to heat and power your property. Also, the report includes practical advice on how to improve the energy efficiency, the cost of the improvements and how much you could potentially save by following up on each piece of advice.
Tip 6: Consider Switching Energy Supplier
Before you decide to move on from your present energy supplier, understand your energy tariffs in greater detail. Also, your energy supplier should be able to recommend which tariff (suppliers usually have a couple of them) is the most cost-effective for your home.
If you feel or have worked out that your current supplier does not represent the best value for money to you, there’s no need to remain with them. Some websites provide services that help you compare and contrast energy tariffs from different suppliers which help homeowners make a better choice.
Just do your research and due diligence. And remember what’s most important to you: cost, energy source, or customer service.