How to save money on your energy bills

Energy costs having been increasing above inflation over the last few years, which means that in these tough times these outlays are becoming quite a big part of everyone’s domestic budget.

The purpose of this page is to take you step-by-step to show different ways to manage these rising costs and hopefully by the end of it if you were to take-up some of these ideas, you could really save money.

1. Behaviour is key!

The first thing you can influence right now is how you distribute the heating in your home and to all the rooms. Use too much heating when you don’t need it and it is literally throwing money away.

Our top tip!

Turn down the room thermostat – in the average house, turning down the thermostat by just one degree (1oc) can you save you £65 per year on your heating bill. To be honest, we don’t even think you will be able to tell the difference in temperature, but you will benefit from the saving. Remember, during the winter, wearing shorts around the house is not normal! We are not suggesting you get cold, but be sensible with your heating.

2. Are you on the right tariff?

Lots of people don’t realise that they could save a lot of money by switching to a different energy provider. uSwitch is just one ‘comparison’ website that allows you to compare all the energy deals currently out there in the marketplace. The nice thing that they do is show you very clearly on screen how much you can expect to save by swapping provider each year. They also make the swapping process really easy – by essentially doing it all for you!

What you need to provide:

  • Postcode
  • Contact details
  • Understanding how much you are paying or using in terms of gas and/ or electricity.

From our experience, customers have saved £100s by switching as very often than not they were on the wrong tariff for a long long time.

3. Install cheap energy saving devices to save on electricity

Top tip!

Get yourself an energy monitor – so we measure electricity consumption in kWhs in the UK. So when you turn on your kettle, tumble dryer or electric heater you will be able to see how the big increased in your electricity usage.

By understanding where electricity is being consumed will prompt you take action to try and manage this more effectively, hopefully lowering your bills too.

4. Install LED lighting

If you have halogen spotlights in your kitchen or traditional incandescent bulbs around the rest of your home, it is now time to make the switch! LED lighting offers the same quality of lighting as traditional bulbs, but they use a fraction of the energy and they last about 20 times longer.

Despite LED bulbs being slightly more expensive, in our experience an LED bulb will still pay for itself within the year and then each subsequent year you are benefitting from further big savings. The quicker you change them, the quicker you can start making the savings, so don’t wait till your old bulbs blow before making the change!

As a final point, LED lights are not like the energy saving lights of old that take an age to warm up – LED’s, just like the traditional incandescent bulbs are instant!

5. Utilise FREE Government grants

Ensuring your loft and cavity spaces are properly insulated is a quick fire way to lower your energy bills. If they are not insulated, there is currently a grant available to households in the UK that will cover the cost of getting this done. Check whether you are eligible now by entering your postcode and other details below – we will come back to you with a simple yes or no!

6. Get help paying for Energy Saving improvements

We understand that many of the things we talk about on TheGreenAge are not cheap investments, however there is help from the Government to cover the upfront cost of getting these things installed. Take a look at Green Deal for example, which is a great way of using the energy savings to finance the install costs for some of the measures.

If you are dreaming bigger and want to produce your own electricity or hot water, there are now two schemes in place, the Feed in Tariff and the Renewable Heat Incentive, that pay you for the electricity and heat you produce, helping to cover the installation costs.

There are also various grants in the form of the Energy Company Obligation. If you are in receipt of certain benefits, on pension credit or in certain postcode areas, you could be eligible for extra help in the form of an ECO grant – so there is help out there to become more energy efficient.

Don’t know where to start?

Then have a look at James and Nick discuss energy saving measures on their popular weekly videoblog. It as good a place to start as any.

The experts at TheGreenAge are here to help you; we provide impartial advice, energy saving products and also we have developed a local network of installers across London that all share our goal of helping our customers become more energy efficient in the most cost effective way possible!


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