8 Great Ways to reduce your energy bill

As the evenings begin to shorten and the schoolbooks and uniforms re-emerge from the presses we have been hit with the news that energy rates are about to increase yet again. Below I have outlined eight ways to combat the price hike and reduce your spending.

1: Insulate, insulate, insulate. If you use a radiator heating system be aware its estimated that 40% of the heat is lost through the wall. If you insert radiator reflector panels behind your rads it will mean that they will heat up faster and the room will retain its heat better. This ultimately means that you don’t need to leave them on as long thus saving you cash.

2: Whilst on the insulation topic if you have a fireplace which is either unused or rarely used it means that you are losing heat up the flue of the chimney and cold draughts are coming down. A chimney balloon will stop the heat escaping and cold draughts from coming down. Some people use a pillow or stuff it with newspapers but a chimney balloon is much safer and purpose built product.

3: Study where you are wasting money on electricity by installing an electricity monitor or using an energy monitoring socket in your home. Some of the products in your home are no doubt turned on more often than needed and you will be surprised just how much its eating into your pocket. The monitor will help you resolve why your bills are as high as they are and will help your adjust your behaviour patterns accordingly.

4: Did you know that according to the SEAI 5% of the overall usage of electricity in Ireland is used by appliances on standby mode. This is completely unnecessary wastage. By using a multi-socket power saver strip or a single socket power saver you can easily turn off electrical appliances which would normally have been in standby mode.

5: One of the highest wattage products in your kitchen is a kettle which is generally 2KW. How many of you fill the kettle to the top and boil it four times before you actually get around to making a cuppa? An Eco kettle allows you to only boil the amount of water you require at that moment in time. If you want to make two cups of tea you set the kettle to only boil this amount of water. This means that the kettle takes less time to boil and helps you reduce your power usage.

6: Change over from the traditional to LED lighting. I’m not on about those dull blue LED light but the Super bright White Bulbs. These will give you the light of a standard 40 watts bulbs whilst only using the power of 2 watts. While they cost a bit more initially they should give you 50,000 hours of light and thus will rarely need to be replaced.

7: Remember hot water heating will keep that electricity meter circulating! For showering its best to move over to an aerated showerhead. An aerated showerhead restricts the amount of water used when showering without affecting the performance of the shower. The water is restricted but air sucks into the neck of the showerhead meaning what comes out is effectively half the water at twice the pressure. An aerated showerhead will typically pay for itself within 6 to 8 weeks.

8: Whilst on the hot water topic it is estimated that typically an Irish household wastes over 20,000 litres of water per year on pre-rinsing plates, pots and pans before adding them to the dishwasher. With a dish squeegee you can eliminate this waste. Simply scrap off the remains from your plates, pots and pans with this versatile three sided silicon wedge and stop the pre-rinsing process.