Top Tips - How to use less energy and save you money

As we all brace for the looming increase in the costs of fuel in our homes, we wanted to take the time to offer you some handy tips to help you restrict your energy usage and keep your costs as low as possible.

1.    Install insulation in the loft, this will help prevent heat escaping up through the top of your property (ideally 100% natural sheep wool).
2.    Install cavity wall insulation – this is a cheap option (most energy companies offer it for free) and will help minimise heat loss through the walls of your home.
3.    Install a heat pump and take advantage of the RHI (renewable heat incentive). If your boiler has packed up, try installing a renewable heating technology and the best bit, you get paid to produce the hot water by the government! (Conditions apply for the applications – closing date 31st March 2022)
4.    Draught proof around your front door (including the letter box) to help prevent cold air rushing into your home during the winter months. 
5.    Shower – don’t bath! Baths tend to use a huge amount of hot water compared to a shower, reducing the amount that you will pay for water.
6.    Limit the length of your showers where possible. We all love a nice long shower; but if you can try and reduce your long stays to a minimum you are going to save energy and reduce your bills (especially if you have a water meter).
7.    Keep windows shut during the winter apart from to air out the property. When the heating is on, you will be letting all the hot air escape straight out of the window, which will be wasting energy and money!
8.    Install heavy curtains and make sure you close them at night. This again acts as a barrier to prevent heat loss out of the home.
9.    If you have a regular boiler, turn down the thermostat on the hot water tank. This will mean the water in the tank never gets too warm. There is little point producing scalding hot water in the tank if you then simply add cold water in your mixer shower or bath to get it to a nice comfortable temperature. Making sure it is heated to the right temperature (and stored at the right temperature too) in your hot water tank is a great way to save on your heating bill. Check out your boiler thermostat as a slight reduction will ultimately use less energy.
10.    Insulate your hot water cylinder and if you have an existing one, check for wear and tear of current insulation. You can pick them up locally and it will help limit heat loss.
11.    Turn down the room temperature by a couple of degrees. 19 degrees is about the average here in the UK. Some people do like their homes a bit warmer, but it’s worth noting that, for every degree you turn your thermostat down you will save about £50. 
12.    Replace your lighting with low energy LED lights, they not only use 90% less energy but they also last 10-20 times longer so you will hardly ever have to replace them.
13.    Take advantage of sunshine as the days get lighter to keep your house warm (keep curtains open in the daytime to maximise direct light entering the house).
14.    Avoid using the dryer – hang clothes outside when you can. Dryers have big motors to spin the clothes and heaters to help the drying process which means they are expensive bits of kit to run. If you can hang clothes outside you can normally get away without ironing them too because the wind does the work for you!
15.    Install a programmable thermostat – there is no point heating your home if you aren’t there. Better still, install a smart thermostat which you can control from outside your home. This will allow you to turn the heating on and off from wherever you are in the world.
16.    Plug things into a power plug and turn that off at the plug when not in use – to avoid leaving things in standby. Even though when things are in standby they use less energy, they do still use some! Turning everything off at the plug ensures that NO electricity is used.
17.    Install a new energy saving condensing boiler. If you have an old boiler in your house, it might be time to swap it to a new condensing version. This will recycle the heat in the waste exhaust gases making it run far more efficiently.

We hope that you found these tips helpful.
If you need any assistance with any of the above, are having boiler issues or would like a new thermostat installed, get in contact and we will get you booked in as soon as possible.
Don’t forget to book in your annual boiler service to ensure that your boiler is running as efficiently as possible.