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Energy bills are soaring this winter. If you want to cut your energy bill here are 17 easy energy saving tips:
1.) Reduce your washing machine use.
According to the Energy Saving Trust you can save £8 a year by reducing your washing machine usage by just one cycle a week.
Only wash clothes that actually need washing. Spot clean when you can. Do the sniff test, if it smells okay and it looks clean, you can wear it again. Don’t put on the washing machine unless you’re running a full load.
2.) Wash on the lowest temperature possible.
Heating up the water uses the most energy when running a cycle. Try and wash clothes on at least a 30 degree cycle. Some washing powders (like Aldi’s Almat washing powder) are designed to work just as well at 20 degrees. You can even use a cold water wash for a lot of clothes, especially if they’re not particularly dirty and just need a refresh. In fact, it’s better for many clothes to be washed in cold water.
If not washing in cold water use the eco wash setting or a 20 and 30-degree cycle when you can.
Bedding, towels tea towels and flannels still need a hot wash to get rid of bacteria.
Bonus money saving tip – You only need a tablespoonful of washing powder, any more than that is too much.
3.) Avoid the tumble dryer as much as possible.
Dry clothes outside and dry clothes indoors on racks if you can. It can be hard to dry clothes outdoors as the days get colder and darker. However, even partially drying them outside and finishing them off in the tumble dryer is going to save money.
The absorbent towel method is great to soak up moisture from thick clothes and other garments before you line dry. Lay your item of clothing flat on a towel. Roll the towel up with the clothing inside. Then squeeze the towel. It’s amazing how dry this gets items of clothing.
4.) Slash Your Heating Bill by 51%
Watch 11 Easy Ways to Save Money On Your Heating Bills and slash your heating bill by 51%. Tips suggested in the video include turning down your central heating thermostat. Each degree you turn it down can save up to 5% on your heating bills.
Another easy tip is to turn the water flow temperature down on your combi boiler (there are tips for all types of boilers and hot water cylinders). This is surprisingly easy to do and is explained in the video. It can save you 8% on your hot water bills.
5.) Insulate the Person Instead of the Home
keep your body heat in by insulating yourself. Adding an extra jumper can save 10% on your heating bill. Another great tip is to wear layers to trap in the heat. Add a jumper, thermal underwear, a hat, thick socks and slippers.
There is an excellent article on moneysaving.com about Heating the Human and not the Home. It has links to cheap base layers, slippers and more.
6.) Close the Curtains at Dusk
According to safe style UK round 18% of heat is lost through the windows at home. Drawing curtains at dusk can reduce heat loss by 15 to 17%
7.) Use draft excluders.
Put a draft excluder underneath your front door to stop draughts. You can pick them up for around £10 or you can make them yourself from materials including tights or old jeans.
8.) Avoid using the oven
Use a microwave, air fryer, the hob or slow cooker instead. These are all less expensive ways of cooking.
According to Sust-It.net a baked potato costs 6p if cooked in a microwave for 10 minutes, 27p if cooked in an air fryer and 51p if cooked in an oven. If you do use the oven, try and batch cook some other dishes at the same time.
9.) Take shorter showers.
Cutting your shower time from eight to four minutes a week could save £70 a year. This is based on 5 showers a week.
10.) Switch everything off standby.
According to the Energy Trust this could save £35 a year.
11.) Replace your bulbs with LEDs.
If you haven’t already done this – do it today. The Energy saving Trust reports this will save £65 a year across an average house.
12.) Avoid overfilling the kettle.
This will save you another £13 over the year.
13.) Defrost your freezer.
Freezers run 24 hours a day so it’s important to ensure they run as efficiently as possible. A freezer which isn’t defrosted is less efficient and costs more to run, so taking some time to defrost your freezer is worth the effort.
14.) Keep your freezer full.
A full freezer is cheaper to run. You can use bottles of tap water or screwed up newspaper if your freezer isn’t full of food. If the freezer is empty you’re just cooling down air which makes it work harder. Also don’t leave the fridge or freezer door open for long.
15.) Switch off lights when you’re not using them.
This can save up to £25 a year.
16.) If you work from home, use a laptop instead of a PC when you can.
Laptops can use up to 80% less electricity than desktop computers. It does depend on the model of laptop you use, as to how much power they consume but running a laptop will always be cheaper. This adds up when you’re using the device over 8 hours each day.
17.) Wash up in cold water.
This may be extreme but every little helps. Apparently it’s not hot water that cleans our dishes but the scrubbing action, submerging our dishes and soap. If you use washing up liquid, you don’t actually need hot water. Fairy has even launched washing up liquid that is more effective in cold water.