Who isn’t looking for frugal tips to lower their energy bill, right? It is winter and the costs of energy are creeping up. And the higher your energy bills go the lower your belly sinks because cash is tight, especially this winter.
I know. I’ve watched our energy bills go up and down, like the weight of an erratic dieter, for many years now. Not to mention the energy saga of our sons who have a prepayment meter, which means that during winter their energy costs are astronomical; and it is not like they are warm and toasty in their little rented house.
Over the years, we’ve learned two things about the fluctuations in our energy bills:
- One, keeping energy bills reasonable means we need to shop for better deals regularly, I mean like every 12-18 months; and
- Two, we need to clean up our energy act regularly to save on energy.
If you are looking for frugal living tips on how to switch your energy supplier, please look elsewhere.
Here you will find fifteen frugal tips on how to clean your energy act and slash these pesky bills. These frugal energy tips use the ERR strategy and tell you how to eliminate energy waste, replace, or change, the way in which you use energy and reduce your energy consumption.
Here are the fifteen frugal tips to save hundreds of pounds on energy and keep your energy bills under control.
7 frugal tips to eliminate waste and save on energy in your home
Here are seven straightforward ways to eliminate waste and save on energy in your home.
Some frugal energy tips you can implement immediately, others may need to wait; some are cheap to put into action, others not so much.
#1. Pull the plug. Okay; how many of your electrical appliances are left on standby? My guess will be ‘many’. And this is a waste of energy you really don’t need – most appliances will be perfectly fine if you pull the plug (watch for some TVs and recording devices because these may lose their memory if plugged off). Word on the street is that, depending on how many devices you use, you can save between £35 and £50 per year by simply unplugging. Doesn’t sound much but this is one week of food, a couple of pairs of trousers, a pair of shoes, or a nice little chip off your debt (or contribution to your ISA). So, think again.
#2. Put out lights. My Dad used to drive me mad when I was little by sending me back to put out the lights. I thought he was unnecessarily stingy. Now I do the same (except when I forget the lights on which annoys John terribly). Leaving lights on when there is no one who needs light is a waste of the worst kind. So, put the lights off; and teach your kids to do it as well.
#3. Get yourself some draught excluders. I know, I know. These look very silly and you can trip in them. They help keep the heat in, though. Which is kind of important during the winter – after all, why would you willingly choose to heat the universe; and pay for it. While you are at it, you may wish to get some heavy curtains as well.
#4. Carpet is better than wood. This is the bane of our marriage: I like wooden floors and John wants to stick with carpets. There is a mixture of flooring in our house but I’ll have to say that carpets do keep the house warmer.
#5. Get more insulation. I’ve come to believe that insulation is a bit like shoes: one can never have enough of it. We have cavity wall insulation (needs renewing), loft insulation…all kinds of insulation. It makes a large difference and it not only keeps the heat in; in summer it keeps it out better as well.
#6. Double glazing. Yes, it is true: in the 21st century, some houses in the UK still don’t have double glazing. When it comes to eliminating waste and saving on energy, this is essential.
#7. Check for drips. Sounds trivial, I know. But dripping water can really lead to a very large waste of both water and energy (to heat and move it around the house). And it is annoying!
7 frugal tips to save on energy by changing use
You can save on energy a lot by eliminating waste; you can save even more – and more sustainably – if you change the way you do things when it comes to energy use.
Here are seven changes that can lead to large energy-saving gains:
#8. Change your light bulbs. Yes, get yourself some energy-saving bulbs. They don’t come cheap but they also pay for themselves from savings within several months. This doesn’t mean that you should start leaving the lights on but it won’t be so bad if you occasionally forget them on.
#9. Buy new appliances. New white goods are generally much more energy-efficient than the ones made 5-10 years ago. The interesting question is, what you do if a very old appliance that sucks energy like a thirsty man on a bottle of cold beer is still working. In such cases, I do the maths: how long would it take for the more energy-efficient and new appliance to pay for itself? This helps decide what to do.
#10. Get/use a dishwasher. It is only natural to believe that washing by hand is more energy-efficient than using a dishwasher. As with most natural beliefs, this is wrong. A full dishwasher load uses 4 gallons of hot water per cycle (and this washes eight full-place settings). An average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute. This means that you can hand wash more economically than a dishwasher if you can wash eight place settings in two minutes. Do you see?
#11. Change your energy supplier. We’ve been doing this one with some regularity over the last five years or so. It certainly pays off to be an energy shopper – getting cheaper energy complements nicely the other actions you can take to save on energy. Even only moving from a variable tariff to a fixed one can save you up to £250 per year. According to goenergyshopping.co.uk – Ofgem’s (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) official website – there are three steps to efficient energy shopping. First, you have to take stock of your energy bills; then you have to shop around; and lastly, you have to take control and act on your research. There are Ofgem-approved comparison sites you can use to compare energy suppliers and tariffs.
#12. Install solar panels. Installing solar panels is an important change when you wish to save on energy. Our solar panels generate annually over £700 worth of electricity (about 12% ROI) in ‘sunny’ Manchester.
#13. Change your heating controls. We’ll need to do this one – our heating controls are so ancient that we often find the heating on when it shouldn’t be. Sometimes, I’m freezing because the heating has not come on. Now there are advanced heating control systems that allow you to time your heating precisely, heat different parts of the house at different times, etc. Certainly worth a second thought.
#14. Change your showerhead. I always suspected that our drench shower is more efficient than the movable head. It turns out I’m right. Look into changing your shower head with a water-saving one – this way, you can have a decent shower and save on water and the energy to heat it.
Reduce your energy consumption
15. You will reduce your energy consumption substantially by implementing all the ways to eliminate waste and change your energy use.
Further, you can think about whether you are over-consuming.
For instance:
#15. Are you keeping your house too warm? This sounds ridiculous, I know, but there are people who’ll have their thermostats on high and the windows opened because they are too hot. You don’t have to walk around your house in a T-shirt in the winter, you know; just put a jumper on.
Are you heating a whole kettle of water when you need only a cup?
Are you heating the parts of your house that you don’t use?
Final thoughts on saving energy and keeping your bills down
These fifteen frugal tips to save energy and keep bills down have saved us thousands of pounds over the years. Better still, our house is warm and comfortable in the winter and cool in summer.
Now that you know what to do to save on energy, and how simple these tips are to implement, what are you waiting for? Go and make your life better, your wallets fatter, and the planet healthier.
How do you manage to keep your energy bills under control? Which of the points in this post you have implemented and which you intend to implement?
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
Great ideas for saving energy here Maria! We regularly audit our energy use by looking at our bills and comparing them to the previous period. We are conscious of things such as lights, plugs being left on and have (tried) to teach the children good habits!
I think ultimately if you want to clean up your energy costs in check you need to assess usage perhaps every 3 months and be aware of the way you live and use energy day-to-day.
@Ricky: Every three months may be just right. We only need to get organised enough to do it :).