With gas and electricity prices rising every winter, many homeowners are worrying about the cost of their utilities in the current climate. Numerous consumer surveys have found that some Brits are being forced to leave heating off despite the cold, as prices are just unaffordable.
Yet while there is little you can do about the cost of gas or electricity, you can reduce the amount you pay by using less of it – and this doesn’t have to mean living in a freezing cold house. There are a variety of measures you can take to make your home more efficient, from simple steps to big changes, all of which will take a bite out of your energy bills.
Insulation
Estimates put the amount of heat lost through an un-insulated roof at between 20 and 30 per cent of all that is produced in the typical home. Insulating your loft is easy, cheap, and makes a big difference. A similar amount of heat is lost through the walls, but cavity wall insulation is a bigger job and requires getting in an expert, so will cost more.
Windows
Single-pane windows – especially those in old, draughty wooden frames – do not retain heat well. The more you lose the harder your heating system has to work to keep the house warm, so while replacing old glass with double-glazed UPVC units involves a fairly significant up-front cost, you make this money back and more throughout their lifetime. Also, remember that potential buyers will be attracted by the heat-saving ability and added security that comes with double glazing.
Even with double glazing, however, windows will still be a weak point for heat loss, so think about how you can use your window dressings to retain heat. Many people use thick curtains, but think about blinds; a good fitted set of wooden blinds can provide extra insulation while allowing you to regulate the temperature of your home more easily in summer.
beautiful blinds for your office or home
Change of habit
Many people don’t realise that small changes to behaviour can make a big difference to energy usage. Be more active with the radiator dials – you only want to be heating the rooms you are using, so turn the radiators up when you need them and keep internal doors shut, to stop heat dissipating throughout the house. Also, be more careful about turning off electronic devices at the socket rather than leaving them on standby; this may not sound like much but times this by the number of appliances you have and it will really make a difference over a year.
wow! these are great information on how we can keep our electric bill low. I know the feeling of paying for high power bill and it is stressful. Thanks for sharing this post.
Very handy and useful tips sis, this is importANt for us especially during winter times.
i wish i could do this sis, but we live in an apartment building and our windows are glass panes, so even with the central heating on, it is still cold inside the house, especially in the bedroom. but as with the blinds, i am looking into putting wooden blinds though… thanks for the idea…
hey there, thanks for sharing this information. Will keep these in mind.
during summer and winter we normall spend more electric power because that’s the time when we have to keep ourselves nice and cool/ nice and warm from the severe seasonal weather. hard to keep the bills lower during this time of the year
It’s a great feeling to get low utility bills. Today, we did not watch television to save energy.
Marms
This is a very interesting topic which I’m sure a lot of people had been looking forward to. It is hard to save energy unless we are very consistent of doing so. Good thing, we have a fixed plan with our energy then we can use as much as of energy that we wanted and still paying the same monthly bill payment. But, not all energy company provide the same flexible plan, so it is time to treat energy saving very seriously.
That is what I’m telling the kids at home. I always remind them to turn off the lights when not in use. It adds up over a period of time.
I’m guilty of using too much electricity everyday. I’ll take into consideration your tips and let’s see if these will cut down my meralco bill.
I agree about really conserving energy. Now that it is winter here we used up a lot of energy for the heater and our bills is a bit high than usual.
This is very useful for us! Thanks for the share will do it now
saving on energy really saves you money for that matter and its really good tips.
Proper insulation indeed can save us energy and with simple improvement in our home we can achieve our goal to lessen our expenses.
These are wonderful tips! Everyone should really do this!