Many people are toying with the idea of putting the heating on as temperatures in the UK have dropped considerably in the past weeks. It comes as search volumes for ‘are energy bills going up?’ have increased by a staggering 60 percent in the past week alone.
No wonder people are looking for new ways to reduce their energy bills and how much money they are spending.
The recent 10 percent energy price cap increase from Ofgem came into effect on October 1 and will see British households fork out even more cash to heat their homes this winter.
With this price cap, it will expect to see bills increase by £12 every month, equating to nearly £150 extra a year.
Alison Maclean, head of marketing at St. Modwen Homes, a national housebuilder, has revealed how Brits can slash their energy bills this winter. One simple way to do this is by turning off any standby appliances in homes.
Turn off standby appliances
Turning off standby plugs could help save around £40 a year. These include lamps and kitchen appliances like toasters and kettles. Switching off appliances at the wall, rather than leaving them on standby, helps reduce energy outputs.
Homeowners can often struggle to remember to do this daily but purchasing smart plugs and timers can help manage this automatically.
Alternatively, set yourself a daily reminder on your smartphone or smart home technology.
Don’t heat empty rooms for the sake of it
Most if not all UK homes will have a radiator in every room of the house, but not all rooms will be in use all the time. For example, Brits may have a spare bedroom that is untouched for most of the week, or perhaps a bathroom that only gets used when guests come over.
It’s important to turn radiators off in the most-unused rooms of the house. This simple hack can cut 4.5 percent from Brits’ energy bills, meaning an extra £50 off!
Heat yourself, not the room temperature
All of the previous hacks are aimed at reducing energy usage or being smarter with how energy is used throughout the home. However, it is possible to get by without turning the energy on at all.
However, that is if the individual is savvy and doesn’t mind layering up at home.
A one-off payment for an electric blanket will mean you’re warm at night and can cost as little as 3p an hour to use, in comparison to a whopping 22p per hour for standard energy supplies.
Calculating the above differences in cost, using an electric blanket instead of turning the heating on over the winter months in the UK would save you £136.80. And with an electric blanket costing as little as £24.99, that’s still over £110 in savings.
