As we head into winter, finding ways to cut energy bills is on everyone’s mind.
Even before investing in a home energy upgrade, there are steps you can take to chip away at the cost.
Simplying turning down the thermostat by one per cent can help reduce your heating bill by up to 10 per cent.
And while it’s good to keep living areas warm it also pays to turn down the temperature in the hall and landing, or rooms you don’t much use.
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Setting your hot water thermostat to between 60 and 65 degrees will help, as will washing your clothes at lower temperatures.
Next up, make sure timers and controls align with your daily routine, so radiators aren’t blasting in an empty house. Setting the heat to come on 30 minutes before you need it, and to turn off 30 minutes before you don’t, will all save you money.
Smart heating controls give even greater accuracy and can be managed remotely via smartphone.
Simple habits like switching off electrical devices when not in use make a difference over time. For safety reasons too you should switch off all your appliances at night and when you are not at home. Turn off your computer if you are not going to be using it for more than an hour, and lights when you leave a room too. Even turning off the oven or hob just before your meal is cooked, and using the heat already built up to finish cooking, saves unnecessary usage.
If appliances are coming towards the end of their life, be selective about replacing them. Thanks to EU labelling it’s easy to see at a glance which machines are good on energy efficiency. These are often more expensive to buy but cheaper to use, saving you money over the long term.
Washing machines and dishwashers use a lot of energy to heat water so setting them to run at a lower temperature will save you money, as will only using them on full loads only.
Tumble dryers are energy soaks, so if you have a clothesline, make the most of it. With fridges, don’t leave the door hanging open. Leaving it open for 20 seconds takes it 45 minutes to recover, during which time it’s working overtime to cool down.
If you have an oil or gas boiler, get it serviced annually to ensure it’s as efficient as possible. If it’s on its last legs, far better to make a planned switch to a more energy efficient system, such as, if your house is well enough insulated, a heat pump.
By not being proactive with your old boiler, chances are it will break down in the middle of a cold spell, which will only encourage you to make a snap decision and replace it with more of the same.
It’s why you can’t start thinking about energy upgrades too soon, with insulation as the perfect place to start. You may already have it but it may not be sufficiently thick, or effective.
Once you have the fabric of the house insulated, possibly including new doors and windows to ensure it is airtight, a heat pump offers the potential for significant savings.
“A heat pump is part of the big move away from fossil fuels,” explains Shane Toye, a consultant engineer from Mitsubishi Electric, a maker of air source heat pumps.
Not unlike a fridge in reverse, it’s a tried and tested system that uses electricity and is designed climates such as in Ireland.
“Because we are building homes now with BER ratings of such a high standard, with higher levels of insulation and better air tightness, our homes are using heat in very small amounts. So, it makes sense that, rather than use traditional heat sources where you’re dumping high temperatures of heat periodically into a property, with a heat pump you are introducing heat low and slow and stretching it out over a long period of time,” he explains.
The result is a comfortable temperature at all times of the day and night, throughout the year.
“That’s because with a heat pump you are introducing the heat back into the home at the same rate and speed at which is coming out,” he says.
It means no wasted energy, and no wasted spend. “You also get a level of comfort that you just can’t get with your old fossil fuel led heat source, the kind where you boost heat for an hour and are either too hot or too cold.”
Finally, with energy upgrades such as solar panels, you don’t just stand to save money, you can actually make some.
Solar panels offer the prospect of saving up to 60 per cent on your home’s electricity bill. Installation costs are typically paid back in perhaps six to nine years, after which your solar powered energy is free. Better still, you have the option of selling any excess back to the grid, with the value credited to your bill. Result.
