Skyrocketing energy prices have left many of us looking for ways to save money on our energy bills and ways to save money long term. The cost-of-living crisis has left us searching for the most cost-efficient ways to stay warm this winter.
Not much can be done in terms of competing with previous years’ energy bills, however, there are things you can do to keep your costs as low as possible.
So how can you make your home more energy efficient? Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
1. Ensure Your Home is Properly Insulated
The best way to prevent unnecessarily high energy bills is to stop draughts so that you don’t need to keep your heating on for as long. Windows, doors, chimneys, and floorboards need to be made draught-proof to prevent higher energy bills.
Your garage door is a place where a lot of heat can escape and an insulated electric roller garage door can help you save more money on your bills. Proper home insulation will keep warm air in and cold air out.
2. Utilise Timers and Pre-sets
Timing your heating to only turn when you come home in the evening, or when you wake up in the morning is the most efficient way to make the most of your heating.
Trying to utilize timers and pre-sets to optimize your comfort and having it pre-set to switch itself off, will prevent you from incurring any bills if you forget to switch it off.
It’s easy to accidentally fall asleep and realize you’ve left the heating on all night; therefore, timers are great for preventing wasted energy and higher costs.
Also, try to keep temperatures down to a minimum, as turning down your thermostat by just 1 degree can save £75 per year.
3. Limit Your Radiators
If you have multiple radiators in your home, then turning some off and limiting the number of radiators on in the house will save you power and money.
Turning the radiators down or off in rooms that you don’t spend as much time in, is worth considering to prevent your boiler from having to work too hard.
Energy-efficient boilers are worth investing in and although expensive, newer boilers can save you more money in the long run.
4. Unplug Energy Vampires
Unnecessary appliances can drain your electricity when not in use. Remembering to switch off and unplug electricals to prevent them from being left on standby mode will save your energy from being drained.
Unplugging or even just switching off televisions, chargers, kettles, and computers at the plug could save you a significant amount of money. It’s worth making going around the house and unplugging all unused electricals a part of your daily routine.
5. Lights Out
Your lights have a huge part in your electricity consumption. So, it’s important to switch them off when you’re not using them. It’s also important to use energy-efficient lightbulbs like LEDs or compact fluorescent bulbs which use at least 75% less electricity than standard bulbs, also known as incandescent bulbs.
Another tip is to make sure that you’re dusting your bulbs around your house often. Dust build-up on your lights can mean that your lightbulbs are a lot dimmer and not shining as brightly as they could be, meaning you could start turning extra lamps on around the home.
For your exterior lighting, it is much more energy efficient to use halogen bulbs, rather than incandescent bulbs, and there is no difference in brightness.
6. In the Garden
Not only can you save energy around your home, but you could be using energy in your garden that you can decrease substantially.
Firstly, as it’s winter you may be more inclined to just let the grass grow which will save you using energy mowing it or if you’d rather keep on top of your grass just as much as you would in the summer then switch to an electric mower.
Electric mowers are much more energy efficient than petrol mowers. Have you thought about solar-powered lights in your garden instead of electric?
If you’re currently using electric-powered lights, switching to solar lights means that you’ll be cutting that expense out completely as solar lights will not contribute to your electricity bill.
7. Educate Your Household
Obviously, it’s important that everyone living under your roof sticks to the same plan you are when it comes to lowering energy otherwise you could be fighting a losing battle. Come up with a plan on what you need to do in your house and what’s practical to enable you to lower your energy consumption and ensure everyone knows to stick to it.
