Top tips for reducing your energy bills

As the prices of electricity and gas continue to rise, we thought you’d like to know some tips that you can follow to help you lower your energy bills.

• Close curtains over windows at night to help insulate your room and stop heat escaping; having black out curtains works even better and can reduce heat loss by 25%!
• Fit reflective panels behind radiators. They stop some heat from escaping through your walls by reflecting it back into the room, keeping your home warmer for longer.
• Put a lid on your saucepan, it’ll heat up faster using less energy.
• Don’t keep your fridge and freezer doors open longer than you need to: for each minute your fridge door is open it can take 3 energy intensive minutes to cool back down. Your freezer can take as much as 30 minutes to regain its temperature after its door has been open for 1 minute!
• A full freezer uses less energy than an empty one as less energy is needed to cool down the warm air that flows in when you open the door. If you can’t seem to fill it up with food, fill in the gaps with newspaper or containers of water.
• Keep an eye on your fridge temperature settings, it can be easy to accidentally knock it onto a colder temperature than you need; the cooler the temperature selected, the more expensive it is to maintain.
• You can save a third of electricity per wash by washing on a full load and using a cooler temperature (such as 40°C)
• Make a conscious decision to turn off all your electronics for an hour a week and spend the time playing board games, having a discussion or just reading a book!
• Use energy efficient LED light bulbs instead of older models such as halogen where possible - they can last twice as long and you could save around £150 by replacing just one bulb in your home.
• Look for the Energy Star label when buying new appliances or buy one that has a high energy efficiency rating.
• Using an Energy Star certified dishwasher on a full load uses less than half as much energy and saves nearly 5000 gallons of water per year than washing dishes by hand! It can also save you time and can clean dishes better.
• Don’t pre-rinse your dirty dishes, just scrape instead. Over 6000 gallons of water is wasted per household every year from pre-rinsing.