With British households battling soaring living costs on multiple fronts, every pound saved matters. Energy costs are a major pain point as price hikes announced earlier in the year are set to inflate bills in the following months.
MoneySavingExpert has said the most effective way to reduce your energy bills is to cut down your consumption. Unfortunately, good deals are scarce at the moment, so you won't save much by switching suppliers.
The personal finance website has issued advice on how to use less gas and electricity in everyday tasks. We have listed these below, along with how much each change could save you annually.
READ MORE:Latest news on the cost of living crisis from HampshireLive
The figures come from calculations made by MoneySavingExpert and the Energy Saving Trust. They are based on a typical three-bedroom household with a family of four, correct as of November 2021.
For each degree you cut the thermostat, you will cut bills by roughly 4 percent, or about £65 a year on average for a typical home. Apparently, 18 degrees is enough for healthy adults, according to the World Health Organisation.
The very old or young needing just lightly higher temperatures. It is also best to turn your heating on only when you need it, rather than leaving on low all day.
When you use less water, it usually means you use less hot water, too. A water-saving shower head could save about 2 per cent for a typical family - £35 a year on average.
Reducing your water usage can not only save money on your energy bills and help the environment, it can also cut bills for those on water meters.
LED bulbs consume about half the energy of the bigger fluorescent spiral energy-saving bulbs. You should also turn the lights off when you leave the room, and not worry about constantly switching lights on and off - it could save you £14 a year.
Equipping your doors and windows with draught excluders can cut 2% off energy bills - about £30 a year on average for a typical home. And if you have a chimney, you can shave off about 1.5% more by draught-proofing it.
Interestingly, adding a second layer on windows with something like clingfilm can make a difference. It just needs to be transparent and airtight.
Savings from this one look promising. Taking just a minute in the shower time could save you £75 a year in energy bills - and £105 a year in water bills for those who have a meter. You can use a shower timer to keep you in check when you over-indulge - or just set an alarm.
If you have an older model, you can save cash by making sure you fill up the washing machine for each washing. For modern machines this would make less of a difference, around £10 a year. You can also try to set the temperature to a lower setting.
If you avail yourself from the use of your tumble dryer, you could save another £40 a year. Just keep in mind to ventilate the room enough when you air-dry clothes, to avoid issues with damp.
You won't save a huge amount with this - around £8 a year - but it's still worth being conscious about boiling more water that you are going to use.
Really only relevant with older TVs and devices, where switching them off instead of leaving them on standby can save £40 a year. Newer devices are made to consume a minuscule amount of power in standby mode - an EU law mandates that devices made since 2013 can't use more than 0.5 watts on standby.
You only really need to heat the space you are in, and not the whole house. Investing in thermostatic radiator valves for each room can save you loads long-term - almost 6%, or £85 a year on average for a typical home.
It's also a total myth that painting your radiators black will heat rooms more efficiently.
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