Saving money on your energy bills is something that is important all year around and especially at wintertime when your heating system will be running most of the time during that cold winter weather. While it may seem like an impossible task to start saving money on your energy bills when they’re seemingly on all the time, here are 5 ways that you can begin to see some savings on those pesky winter energy bills.
Upgrade your old heating system
If you have found that your energy bills are increasing year on year, this may be down to your boiler. Boilers that are older than ten years ten to have an energy efficiency rating of around 60%, which means that up to 40% of all your energy that you are generating is being lost by your old boiler. When you compare this to a newer boiler that is often rated at 90% energy efficiency, you’re only losing out on 10% of the energy that is being generated, which is an extra 30% that you get to use! If you are living in a detached property this could be a potential saving of up £350 annually.
If you decide it is time to upgrade your old boiler and that is the problem, then it is best to do research about which would be best for your home. This is because each boiler type is different from condensing boilers to combi boilers to system boilers. Make sure that you choose the correct boiler type for your home as this will result in more problems down the line if you do not.
Control your heating
If an older boiler is not your problem as you’ve either recently fitted a brand-new boiler or have moved into a modern home, then finding ways to control your heating could be a great solution for you. There are several ways that you can control your heating however the two that we will cover today are using your boilers timer and smart technology.
Boilers timer
Using the timer on a boiler is a great and free way to manage when your heating turns on and off. On most boilers you will first need to turn the dial on your boiler clockwise to make sure that the arrow next to your dial is on the current time, this will ensure that the program will work correctly. Then for the time that you want the heating to be on you then set the pins in this time zone to the on position however this may vary per boiler. Then after you have set the switch to the timer function, your boiler is ready to be left to it’ own devices and heat at the specific times you have set.
Smart devices
Smart devices are the best and easiest way of taking control of your heating, however not the cheapest. There are a number of options when it comes to smart devices to control your homes heating system such as a Nest Learning Thermostat, Netatmo Smart Thermostat and Hive Active Heating however the one thing all these devices have in common is easily being able to control your heating. When it comes to smart devices you can control your heating via your smartphone through an app thanks to your smart thermostat, this means that you have more control over your heating than you would setting a traditional boiler timer. There are also other features available to each smart device such as learning your behaviour to adapt your heating to it, holiday modes to ensure your pipes are not damaged while you are away and many more features.
Step up your draught proofing
Draughts are a common cause for rooms both feeling cold and losing the heat that has been generated to keep them warm. When you hear draught proofing, you may think it is an expensive process that is going to take a tradesman a few days to finish, but it is quite the opposite. The materials which you will need to begin draught proofing should be available from your local DIY shop. There are a range of different areas that draughts can occur such as your windows, doors, and floorboards. It has been shown that draught proofing your home could save you up to £20 per year, however when factoring in that your home is now warmer and you may have the heating on less, this £20 saving can be increased.
Windows
Draught proofing your windows is a task that once you get used to it is quite simple and all you require are some self-adhesive strips. All you will want to do then is attach these strips to the gap between your window and window frame. Doing this for all the windows in your home can drastically reduce any draughts entering via your windows.
Doors
Your front and back door can be a large source for draughts to gain entry to your home. The first place you want to start is by measuring the bottom of your doors when closed so that you can get the correct measurement to hen add a draught excluder brush to the bottom of these doors. Then just as you did with the doors,you will want to place self-adhesive strips around the edge of your doors to fill any gaps around the edge. Finally, if you do not have a flap on your letterbox adding one can help to reduce draughts.
When it comes to doors inside your house there is a very simple thing that you can do to stop draughts and that is to buy a draught excluder! You can purchase draught excluders from many online stores for as little as £2 and all you need to do is place this at the bottom of the door to your living room or bedroom and this way the heat you’re generating for that room won’t be escaping and the room will get warmer quicker and stay warmer for longer.
Floorboards
When it comes to blocking gaps in your floorboards, you will want to be looking for a filler that is flexible and can tolerate movement as your floorboards will change size with use. You will then want to fill in these gaps in your floorboards with this filler making sure that any excess filler is wiped away with a damp cloth asap to avoid marks being left on your floorboards.
Get wrapped up
While it may seem like a simple thing to say, getting wrapped up really can help with your energy bills! Getting yourself wrapped up in a couple of old jumpers and woolly socks really could save you money as this will allow you to turn down your thermostat a little from being all wrapped up. Turning down your thermostat by even one degree has been shown to save you up to 10% on your energy bill, which could be up to £70 at the end of the year by just cutting your heating down by 1 degree!
Turn devices off standby
While the weather outside gets worse in winter, we tend to spend a lot more of our free time indoors binge-watching box sets or trying to beat the next level on a video game. This increase in indoor activity means that we are using more electronic devices that in summer which means more devices will be getting left on standby. Turning these devices off could be saving you around £75 a year, which is a great saving when all you must do is remember to unplug or totally switch off your devices at the wall.
Following these steps is a great way to begin to save on energy bills throughout the winter. There are plenty of other ways you can also save so make sure when you have completed all five to see if there are any other ways you can really save on your heating bills.
