How to reduce your energy bills

Turn your heating off

If you’re out for the day, turn the heating off so that you’re not keeping an empty home warm. Likewise, during the night when you’re wrapped up in bed, you probably don’t need to have the heating on so you can either turn it down or off completely.

Thermostat

The thermostat detects the temperature in your home and turns the heating on when it becomes too cold. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that the thermostat isn’t blocked by anything such as furniture or curtains so that it can do its job properly.

Try and set your thermostat to the lowest comfortable temperature. Some studies show that turning the thermostat down by just 1°C can reduce your heating bills by 10%. However, don’t reduce it too much and make sure that you are still warm!

Set and forget

Once you’re happy with the temperature setting on your thermostat, you shouldn’t have to change it. Remember, when it’s cold outside, you don’t need to change the thermostat as the heating system should heat your home to the same temperature.

MVHR - Keep your windows closed

If you’ve got an MVHR system (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) installed in your home, then it is much more energy efficient to keep your windows closed

Use a bowl when washing up

If you don’t have a dishwasher (or don’t use it) then you can save a lot of money by using a bowl when you wash up instead of having running hot water.

Dripping tap

As well as wasting a lot of water, a dripping hot tap will also increase your heating bills. Make sure that the tap is turned off or change to washer if required.

Water efficient showerhead

As you have a modern home, it is likely that your water appliances are already quite water efficient. However, make sure that if you replace the shower head, it is a water efficient model which will greatly reduce the amount of hot water that you use.

Shower instead of bath

Having a shower will typically use much less hot water than taking a bath.