Energy bills rose sharply for everyone on October 1. The average household will now pay about £2,500 per year for gas and electricity, a rise of more than £500.
But what can people do to reduce their energy bills? Here are some tips that could save you hundreds of pounds.
Turn your heating down
By turning your thermostat down just one degree, you could save about £145 a year, according to the Energy Saving Trust.
This is based on a semi-detached house with the heating on two hours in the morning and seven hours in the evening on weekdays, and four hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
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You might be able to use the heating less frequently or turn radiators off in rooms when you're not using them. You could remove furniture from radiators to help the flow of air and you could 'bleed' radiators, to remove pockets of air and make sure they're working efficiently.
Use an air fryer or a microwave
Ovens have large fans, can be quite big and represent a relatively inefficient way of cooking food. Consider using a microwave, air fryer or a pressure cooker. Air fryers are basically miniature fan ovens, and use less energy.
At current prices, it costs 3p to heat up a frozen ready meal in a 800W (watts) microwave for seven minutes. It would cost 40p for 35 minutes in a 2000W oven, according to energy efficiency website www.sust-it.net estimates.
Microwaves are a cheaper alternative to ovens. A baked potato could take 90 minutes in an oven, 45 minutes in an air fryer and ten minutes in the microwave.
If you do cook on a hob, don't leave a pot to simmer without a lid on it. Adding the lid drastically reduces the amount of gas or electricity you need.
Ditch your old light bulbs
Used LED lights instead of relatively inefficient regular light blulbs, which turn only five per cent of energy into light. Lighting makes up about eleven per cent of the average UK household's energy consumption, according to the Energy Saving Trust.
They might cost a bit more than regular bulbs but it will cost much less in the long run. A traditional halogen bulb lasts around two years, based on three hours’ daily use, around 2,000 hours. An LED under similar conditions lasts 10,000 hours, so for ten years or longer.
A household using a dozen 40W incandescent or halogen bulbs for four hours a day could spend about £238 per year, Sust-it estimates. LED equivalents would cost £41.70 - a saving of £196.30 a year.
Insulate your home
Even little fixes around the home can mount up to significant savings in your energy bills, says the Energy Saving Trust. Fitting your hot water cylinder with an insulating jacket will save you £70 a year in heating costs and 155kg of carbon dioxide emissions.
Professional draught-proofing might cost about £225, the Energy Saving Trust says. However, it can save about £125 a year - based on a typical semi-detached home.
But you don't necessarily need a professional. You can add your own draught excluders and fill gaps around window frames to help keep the heat inside your home.
Draught-proofing around windows and doors could save you around £60 a year, says the Energy Saving Trust. Draught-proofing your chimney will cost you some money but it will also save you an estimated £90 per year.
Wash clothes at 30C
Washing clothes at 30C instead of 40C and using one less cycle a week could save £28 a year, the Energy Saving Trust says.
There are other tips too. Consider washing clothes less often. Don't wash half loads - wait until you have a full load. The washing machine is one of the most heavily used appliances in the home.
If possible, use a machine which has a A+++ rating, the best energy efficiency rating.
Drying clothes outside instead of in a tumble dryer, where this is possible, will also save money. It will cost at least £36 a year to run an energy efficient dryer from October, based on average usage, or as much as £159 for an inefficient model, according to Sust-it.
Not using an inefficient dryer for four months during the summer could save up to £70 a year, according to the Energy Savings Trust.
Take shorter showers
Shortening the time that you spend in the shower will reduce the volume of water that goes down the drain, as well as saving you money on the energy used to heat the water.
Keeping your shower time to just four minutes instead of eight minutes could save a typical household £95 per year on their bills – and an extra £50 on their water bill, if metered, says the Energy Saving Trust.
Swapping just one bath a week with a four-minute shower could save you £20 a year on your energy bills – and an extra £11 on your water bills, according to the trust.
If an average family replaced their old shower head with a water efficient one, they could save around £45 on their gas bill and around £25 on their water bills (if they have a water meter)
A household with gas heating will see about twelve per cent of its energy bill used to heat water for showers, baths and taps, the Energy Saving Trust says.
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