Money Saving March: Cut Energy Bills

March 21st, 2006

With the recent price rises on electricity and gas, saving money on energy has become even more important.

Here are a few tips to help you cut your energy bills around the home:

Close curtains & blinds - closing your curtains or blinds early on in the evening helps to keep the heat in the room, and can also cut down on draughts.
Lower your thermostat by a few degrees - lowering the temperature of your central heating by just a few degrees will save on some energy, and may be hardly noticeable.
Wear more layers - an obvious tip, but rather than expecting to be able to stroll around your home in your undies, try putting on a few more layers of clothing, rather than putting the fire up to a higher level.
Do not leave electronics on standby - if you’ve got televisions, radios etc that you usually leave on standby, it’s a better idea to switch them off completely. A television left on standby can cost in the region of 8p per day.
Wash/dry only when full - washing and drying clothes when the washer/dryer is only half full is a very inefficient use of electricity. Always wait until your washer/dryer is full before using it. Also, if you get your electricity cheaper at certain times of the day (e.g. Economy Seven), try to limit your washing until then.

Although each of these might only make a small difference, added together they all add up to leave you with extra money in your pocket.

Do you have any more energy saving tips? If so, why not leave them in the comments section, below.

This post forms part of the Money Saving March series.