Tips for saving energy and saving money in the home

Tips for UK households - By following these tips and changing your habits, you can save money in the home. With these simple energy saving tips I’ll show you just how easy it is to reduce the cost of your household electricity bill.

Turn it off! - It sounds really simple when put like that but many people are still guilty of it. Not using it? then turn it off! Make sure you turn off your appliances and phone chargers when you're not using them. And if you're not in a room turn off the lights! 

It's a complete myth that turning a light fitting on and off uses more energy than just leaving it on, and nearly all electrical devices and electronic appliances can be safely turned off at the plug.

On average a family could save between £40 and £80 a year just by remembering to turn things off. 

Replace your lamps (bulbs)

If you are you still using the old and now obsolete incandescent or halogen light bulbs, why? You can now buy LED bulbs in all the various fitments that are as bright if not brighter than your halogen bulbs and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) which will fit your other light fittings.

So why replace them? Well, in the majority of homes lighting accounts for approx 14% of the total household electricity bill and according to the Energy Saving Trust for each old halogen or incandescent bulb you replace with an LED       bulb you could save around £2 a year. So by replacing all of the bulbs in your house with energy savings ones like LED you could potentially make savings of around £53 a year!

Careful cooking

By taking a little extra care in the kitchen, you can save cash! A few simple tips include using the correct sized pan on the hob, for the right amount of food when cooking, keeping the saucepan lid on to keep in the heat in and putting bread in the toaster to make toast and not the grill. Also one of the easiest ways to save money is to get out of the habit of filling the kettle right up every time you make a cuppa!, only boil the water you actually need and this will save you so much money in the long run. 

Wash wisely

Don't just take care with your dedicates, whites and colours, use the eco modes with your washing machine settings too. When you have a pile of clothes that have only been worn once and that are not really visibly dirty try putting them on a 30°C wash, anything more than this is just unnecessary and is wasting lots of energy.

This is probably obvious to you but if it's a nice dry day outside why are you using the tumble dryer? These appliances use a lot of energy so only use the tumble drier when you really need to, i.e. rainy days and you'll soon notice a drop in your electricity bills.