How to stay warm and reduce energy costs this winter
As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops lower, one thing will become a pressing concern for all of us very soon - how to cut your energy bills while staying warm?
Yes, in the UK, due to the energy price crisis and the cold winter, annual energy (electricity and gas) bills for average households have increased a lot. While the energy prices for most of us are now capped at £2,500 for 2 years, it is still a big expense! So, what are some practical ways to cut your energy costs?
Switch the energy providers
In the UK you can often find multiple energy providers serving your area. This gives us the unique opportunity to compare the providers and find the biggest bargain! And it is very easy to switch suppliers even if you are only renting the place. Follow the step-to-step guide on Office of Gas and Electricity Markets’ (Ofgem’s) website, and you can find out all about how to switch your energy suppliers, starting from how to find out about your place’s current supplier, Ofgem-accredited price comparison websites, to learning about energy tariffs and how to deal with mis-sold energy plans… Really, just save this website address for later use. You will probably have to return to this website more than once in your life in the UK here.
The Energy Efficiency Labels are your guides
Image from Paul Downey, MHCLG Digital (2019), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The UK uses Energy Efficiency Labels to rate how effectively an appliance uses electricity. Rating from A to G with Group A being the most energy efficient and G the least, you can switch your appliances and gadgets (and even your boiler!) to more energy-efficient models and so save your money and protect the environment, all in one go!
...And so are the Energy Performance Certificates
One thing less familiar to us would probably be the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). In the UK, the property owner or landlord is responsible for ordering for an EPC for you as a potential buyer or tenant. So you can ask for this information before deciding on your new accommodation. Apart from a rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient), this EPC also contains information about the property’s energy use and typical costs, as well as recommendations about how to reduce energy use. So you can easily find out if you need to spend a lot of money keeping your home warm and cosy in the winter. If you already bought the house or flat before finding out that it is not particularly energy efficient, you can also consider insulating your home by getting some double-glazing done, or draught-proofing your place by sealing up cracks in floors, boards, or installing plastic lining for your windows. You might also want to look into insulating the roof in the long run.
Getting to know your thermostat and mechanical boiler timer
Unless you are completely revamping your home, thermostats and boiler timers are probably something that comes with the place you are buying / renting. So installing new smart thermostats and timers in order to save energy might be out of the question for now. But, we can still take time to read the manuals, or ask your local friends to help you to figure out how to reset your thermostat and boiler timer to a temperature setting and routine that will work for you and your family. For example, you can choose to keep different rooms at different temperatures, or you can reduce room temperature settings slightly - you can save more than £55 per year just by turning the thermostat down by 1ºC!
* Please keep in mind that babies, older people, and people with impaired mobility will have different needs when it comes to a good room temperature. So this 1ºC method might not work for every household.
“Heat the human, not the home”
No matter how small a room is, warming up a whole room is still going to use more energy than warming up yourself and your family. So, instead of spending all the energy warming up a room, put the heat source near your person and warm up yourselves. You can consider investing in appliances that will keep you warm, like electric blankets, portable heaters, or hot water bottles. Or wrap yourself up with a snuggle blanket and put an extra jumper or a light coat on. Then you can delay, or reduce, the hours you need to switch on the heater.
For more ideas on how to keep warm cheaply, go to Money Saving Experts’ website for their lists of advice. They are also the one who came up with this easily-remembered catchphrase of “heat the human, not the home”!
* Please do not place hot objects, like a hot water bottle, directly on your skin. You can get hot water bottle rash (erythema ab igne) if your skin is exposed to heat for prolonged periods. Wrap it up with a towel or place it on top of a blanket, and remember to remove the hot object once you are warming up.
And take a closer look into your habits
Let’s admit it: sometimes the energy bills are high because we are careless with energy use. But we can always learn some new, good habits now! Start unplugging appliances when not in use, switching off your computer, television set or wifi router instead of keeping them on stand-by mode 24/7, and switching off lighting and the heater when you are not in the room… and you will see a reduction in your energy bills in the long run.