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energy efficient

Home & Interiors

It pays to be energy efficient

You might be a homeowner, a private or social tenant, you might live at home with your parents or you might be a student. No matter how or where you live, we are all responsible for how much energy we consume and use on a daily basis. So, it’s up to everyone to work together to try and reduce our energy bills and make our homes more energy efficient.

Here you’ll find a few helpful ideas of how you can make your home the most energy efficient on the street!

Your supplier

If you’re fed up of paying over the odds for your energy bills or you think you could get them cheaper then head to an online comparison site to see what you could save, it really does pay to shop around and each year I usually allocate a morning to doing just that as you would be surprised just how much you could save.   My husband has his own construction company so I though who better than himself to ask for some advice in this are.  His top tip  – is to look at updating or upgrading to a new boiler, one that is more energy efficient.  Modern boilers have so many benefits for example you could set up multi-zoned heating, hot water on demand and of course lower bill. He con

servatively estimates from his own experience of making change  like a more efficient boiler you could save up to 35-40% on your home heating bill and even better that these changes are almost immediate. 

Stop being on standby

Many of us are guilty of leaving the TV and other devices on standby – it’s easier to just switch it back on again, right? But many appliances can be safely switched off at the wall without having any negative effect on their programming or settings. Switching everything off properly can actually save you around £30 a year! It all adds up especially when we are spending a lot more time in our homes due to the current pandemic. 

Just be wary of switching off any recording devices, I made that mistake and in error switched off our outside camera.

In the kitchen

The kitchen is a hub of electrical activity with lots of gadgets and helping hands at the ready. But if we use these appliances carefully you can actually save another £30 a year.

  • If you’re washing a few cups and plates, fill up a bowl of water to wash them, rather than using a running tap.
  • Making a cup of tea? Only fill the kettle up with what you’re going to need.
  • By cutting back on one washing machine load a week, you can save money throughout the year.
  • Another thing I have being doing is to reduce my washing temperature. I will admit it took me a while to get fully on board with this one. My pair are sports mad so the clothes are always head to toe mud but I decided to try the claims of a leading washing powder to turn the dial down to 20 and it was pleasantly surprised that it really does work even on the kids sports clothes. Another small change that can have a big impact.

Cut the shower time short

We all enjoy a hot shower in the morning. It gets us ready for the day ahead. But the cost of running your electric shower is enough to give anyone a rude wake up call. If you opt to spend at least one minute less in the shower every day, you can cut at least £7 from your energy bill a year. Doesn’t sound like a huge amount, but I’d be more than happy to have an extra £7 in my purse! Like I said above every little bit does count and over time the small changes all add up. 

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