Smart Energy Saving Tips for Your Home

Ok, we know, you’ve seen the title and thought to yourself – “not another energy savings tip post!” But, while we might be sharing some tips that you’re familiar with, we’ve tried very hard to include some new, more unusual or even less popular ways to help keep your energy bills lower and also cut your energy use footprint, too.

“Cutting energy usage and bills isn’t always as easy as you might think and even when there is a simple tip, you have to follow it for a long time to reap any real financial reward,” said Belgravia estate agent, Best Gapp. “But, if you read enough ‘tips’ you can discover some that will really work for you and could help lower your costs.”

Spend less time in the shower

Even one minute less per shower can save £10 per year per person. If all of your family members do this, then it can add up. Not a spectacular saving, but added together with others, this step can help you make a notable reduction on your annual energy bills.

Batch cook

Older ovens can be pretty energy hungry beasts, but even newer, more energy efficient ones can be made to work harder.

One way to do that is to batch cook – if you’re cooking a meal, double the size and freeze a portion for another day. Or, cook two different meals at the same time and either chill for the next day or freeze for much later.

Keep your freezer fuller

A fuller freezer uses less energy as there’s less space filled with warm air that your freezer has to cool down. And don’t worry about all that defrosting – do that in your freezer and the frozen food will naturally help to keep the air in there colder, making that more energy efficient too!

“Bathroom and kitchen energy saving tips often require only a little thought,” said Reigate estate agent, Robert Leech. “Once you get into the habit of shorter showers you’ll be able to get on with your day that much more quickly and doubling up on becoming more energy efficient with regards to food storage is another easy habit to get into.”

Use rugs on hard floors during the colder months

If you have tiled flooring or hard wood floors, they can get cold in the winter and make a whole room feel chilly. Combat that with a floor rug or two. By insulating hard, cold flooring you’ll limit the amount of cold seeping through and also keep your toes nice and warm at the same time!

Try to heat your home with gas, not electricity

Using electricity to heat can cost up to four times more than heating a home with gas. Where you have gas central heating and smaller electric heaters, do your best to rely on the central heating above any other options.

Hang your clothes to dry where possible

As with the above tip, when you run your dryer, you’re using electricity to power a heat source – this is expensive. Invest in a couple of clothes horses for the winter months and hang your clothes on them to dry whenever its convenient. And, in the summer, hang your clothes outside whenever it isn’t raining!

“As you can see, even if you only undertake to employ a few energy saving tips, they can be relatively simple to do,” they conclude at You Choose Windows. “But, when you add all the savings together, you’re sure to notice a difference in your total annual spend.”

Article written for WhosGreenOnline.com by; Lillian Connors, @lillian_connors  Lillian constantly embarks on fresh #homeimprovement #greenliving #officedesign projects and spreads the word about them.