Saving Money on Energy Around The Home
With energy prices ever on the increase, many of us are asking the questions how can we reduce the energy we use around our home?
And also; how can we reduce the amount we have to spend on energy?
There are various methods you can look at for reducing the amount of energy you use around the home. Some are easy to do and don’t require much effort, while others are a little more complicated to instigate, but well worth while doing.
- Turning off appliances that aren’t in use – computer, TV, games consoles, mobile phone chargers, microwaves etc. These things all use power when on standby, that is basically just being wasted.
- Use low energy light bulbs. – These use much less power to produce the same sort of light levels as standard bulbs.
- Turn the heating down 1 degree and wear warmer clothing. – It’s surprising how little we notice a 1 degree reduction in temperature.
- Shower instead of taking a bath – reducing the amount of water that needs to be heated.
- Insulate your loft so you lose less heat through the roof.
- Fit uPVC windows instead of single glazing so you lose less heat through your windows.
- Put up thick lined curtains in front of doors and windows to further reduce heat loss here.
- Have cavity wall insulation installed to reduce heat loss through the walls – if you’re on certain benefits you may be able to get a grant to help with the cost of this.
Of course, once you’ve reduced the amount of energy you use, there is another way you can reduce the cost of the energy you need, and this is by installing a method of producing your own energy.
One of the simplest and cheapest ways of doing this is to have photo voltaic solar panels installed on the roof of your home. The amount of panels you can have fitted, and the amount of energy they produce will vary depending on the size and position of your home, but overall the amount of energy that you need to buy from the national grid will be substantially reduced by the installation and use of these panels.
An additional benefit to installing solar at the moment is that the government is actively encouraging people to install solar and other forms of energy production by offering money to anyone who produces their own electricity even if they’re using it themselves.
The government scheme is called the Feed in Tariff, and gives you a small amount of money (43.3p) back per kilowatt of electricity you produce. This might not sound like much, but as it’s given for every kilowatt of power you make for 25 years, it does add up to a fair bit, and of course you’ll be saving on what you buy as well. For someone who’s installed a 2.4kwp system you might expect to reduce your yearly bill by around £125-£150, and also earn a further £750-£900 from the FiT scheme.