Top 5 Tips to Save Energy at Home

According to the UK’s energy regulator, the average household spent around £1123 a year on both gas & electricity in 2017(most recent estimate). In addition, energy bills are likely to rise by more than £100 for 15m households. Coupled with the threat of global warming, there’s never been a better time to rethink how you heat your home.

Home Insulation

With the weather warming up, you may not consider your home’s heating a priority. In fact, warm weather may the perfect time to re-evaluate. A good start is insulating your home.

Installing cavity wall insulation will keep your home much cooler in the summer months, as hot air won’t penetrate your walls. This will minimalise the amount you spend on cooling appliances such as air purifiers and desk fans.

Insulating not only prevents heat from getting in on a hot day. It also stops cool air from escaping, increasing the energy efficiency of your home. This will result in huge savings on your energy bills, with some studies claiming that loft insulation could reduce your energy bills by up to £215 per year.

According to Connect4Climate, cooling and heating make 47% of your home’s energy expenditure. The other 53% are made up of different outputs around your home. Don’t worry though, there’s a range of things you can do to minimise their costs.

Switch off lights and appliances

There’s no denying the number of gadgets in our home is rising: TVs, toasters, blenders. Near enough all of these devices found in a modern home will have a standby mode. These can be left on for days, if not weeks, at a time.

By neglecting to turn devices off at the wall, you’re missing out on huge savings. On average, each UK household loses between £50 and £86 a year because of this. MoneySuperMarket looked into the issue further. They found that TV boxes from suppliers like Sky or Virgin media cost households over £25 a year, even when the TV was turned off!

This is one of the simplest ways of saving energy at home; make sure your lights and appliances are switched off when not in use.

Switch your energy supplier

As a result of failing to switch energy suppliers, Brits are reportedly overspending on their energy bills by £2 billion. By shopping around for your energy supplier, you can find the cheapest prices on the market, keeping your bills to a minimum.

Cook wisely

Conserving energy in the kitchen not only comes from shutting off appliances. When cooking, you’d be surprised how many changes you can make. Take the stove for example. Using the right size pan for the right size hob can reduce energy waste. Furthermore, using a lid keeps the heat from escaping the pan, and lowers the amount of energy you need to cook your food. You can find out more here.

There are many ways you can become energy-efficient in the kitchen. uSwitch has a great list that explores them in more depth.

Temperature controls

Save energy at home by setting your home at a lower temperature. It’s nearly summertime. Do you really need to set the thermostat at 22 degrees?

Energy.gov suggests you can save as much as 10% a year by turning your thermostat down a few degrees for 8 hours a day. Why not adopt this method during the summer months?

Keeping an eye on your energy use at home not only helps you save both energy and cash. It will also decrease your carbon footprint. Why not start making changes today?