2nd October is Energy Efficiency Day, and given that the energy price cap increases by 10% on 1st October, we could all probably do with saving some energy. There are lots of different things that you can do around your home or business that can all add up.
Top 10 energy saving tips
- Generate your own energy – one of the best ways to save money on your energy bills is to produce your own energy so that you don’t need to buy as much energy. For most homes, the options are limited to solar PV and heat pumps for heating the home. Solar PV is the easiest to install and a typical solar PV system on a three-bed house could generate a saving of £1,000 per year. You can learn more about this on our How to Tackle Energy Price Increases by Generating Your Own Energy blog.
- Turning things off – you should switch lights off when you aren’t in the room and avoid leaving appliances on standby when they aren’t in use.
- Manage your heating – utilise your heating and hot water controls more effectively so that you program them to come on only when you need them so you aren’t heating your home or water when you aren’t there to use it or when you don’t need it. You should also service your boiler regularly as it is really important to ensure that it is running efficiently, an inefficient boiler can cost up to 30% more to run.
- Turning down by 1 degree – turning your heating down 1 degree or setting your programmer 1 degree lower in winter can make a difference without you noticing it too much and can save up to 10% on heating costs.
- Insulate your home – if your home isn’t properly insulated this is where you could make the biggest savings. This includes loft insulation to a minimum of 270mm, cavity wall insulation, hot water tank insulation and pipe insulation.
- Efficient lighting – using modern LED lighting is the most energy efficient way to light your rooms. Compared to some older fluorescent style lighting up can save up to 80%. If you have spotlights in your home an easy test to see if the light is energy efficient is to place your hand near the light, inefficient spotlights omit a lot of heat and waste energy.
- Laundry savings – washing at 30 degrees instead of higher temperatures and maximising your loads can save you money on your washing. You should also avoid using a tumble dryer where possible as well.
- Bathing savings – you can save money on hot water by switching from a bath to a shower, and shortening the length of your shower can also make savings.
- Smart controls – to help you control your energy consumption you can utilise smart controls such as plugs, controls and sensors for appliances, lighting and heating.
- Energy monitoring – if you have a smart meter you can monitor your energy consumption to watch for any anomalies. You can also get the family involved by challenging your children to save energy using the smart meter as a measure which can help instill good habits in them.
If you are interested in learning more about solar panels and want to know how much you could save by installing solar panels on your roof, fill in our quick and easy online form. It only takes 2 minutes and gives us all the information we need to start designing a solar panel system for your home.
