With energy costs on the rise, it’s only natural to want to do your best to become more energy efficient at home. As well as helping to cut your costs, it can help the environment too. Here are some top tips and practical methods you can employ to start saving energy in your home.
1. Get your loft insulated
If your loft is currently not insulated, or only has a thin layer, than consider investing in extra insulation. It well help keep your home warmer, as warmth won’t be lost so easily, and can reduce your energy bills. Estimate suggest that having at least 270mm of insulation (the equivalent of 10 inches) added to your loft space could help you save up to £180 per year in heating bills.
2. Turn down your thermostat
There’s no harm in having your heating on, but why not try turning you thermostat down a notch. Experts suggest that simply reducing your average home temperature by one degree centigrade could result in reducing your heating bills by 10 per cent. It’s a small change worth considering.
Alternatively, invest in Thermostatic Radiator Valves, which will automatically adjust the heat output from your radiator and maintain the room at the temperature you’ve selected.
3. Turn off lights when not in use
Don’t leave lights on unnecessarily, especially when you’ve gone out of rooms. Get into the habit of turning them off and save yourself some money. When you do need lights on, switch to energy saving light bulbs.
4. Don’t leave appliances on standby
So many of us leave electric appliances plugged in and on standby every day. But rather than wasting energy, try turning them off instead. In the majority of cases, turning off the appliance won’t do any harm.
5. Avoid leaving phones plugged in and charging for hours
No-one wants to run out of battery on their mobile phone, and it’s of course necessary to plug them in and charge them up, but don’t forget to unplug them when they’re fully charged.
6. Check your windows for draughts
Poorly fitted windows can let draughts in your home, so check that your windows fit well. If you can’t afford to have new windows, make the most of thick, well fitted curtains to ensure draughts are kept to a minimum at night.
7. Do one load of washing
Kitchen appliances, such as the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer all make light work of important tasks. But before you put on your machines check that they’re all fully loaded. Don’t waste money and energy by doing half loads.
8. Carry out an energy home check
Your actions can reduce your energy expenditure and costs, but suppliers can help too. E.ON wants to actively encourage consumers to save energy by reducing consumption. It might sound strange that a company wants to sell less of its product, but when more people are doing their bit to have a positive effect on the planet it’s refreshing to find a major corporation who thinks along the same lines.
E.ON has launched a special online tool – the Saving Energy Toolkit – to help you work out how you could make savings. This includes a comparison tool which lets you evaluate your performance in relation to similar households in your area as well as the ability to track your energy consumption over a set time period with helpful graphs and charts. There is even a chart to help you see how which areas of your home use the most energy so you know where to start seeking ways to cut consumption.
The E.ON website has plenty of helpful energy saving information for customers who manage their account online, to help you see how you use energy and where you could make positive changes so why not take a look? You can even share the handy hints and tips via social media platforms so that others can benefit from this wisdom.
If comparing your own figures with those of similar homes to see how you stack up as an E.ON customer then why not share your findings? A little healthy competition never hurt anyone and could prompt others to consider how much energy they really need to use.
***This is a collaborative post***
