In these difficult economic times people across the country are looking to save money in any way they can. One very profitable way to do this is by cutting down on your home’s emissions. The cost of gas and electricity is traditionally one of a family’ biggest monthly outlays - so by cutting down on energy consumption you can save money on your bills in addition to doing your bit for the environment.
There are many ways to reduce your property’s emissions and collectively, these will have a noticeable effect. The Internet is the place to head to as there is plenty of advice and tips available on how you can cut down your energy emissions. You may have already carried out some of the ideas suggested, but there are bound to be some that you haven’t thought of that could allow you to reduce your family’s environmental impact.
The first step to cutting down your energy bills is to get a Home Energy Assessment carried out. If you’re not sure on how to cut your energy bills then an energy expert can survey your home and produce a personalised Energy Saving Report for your property.
The initial outlay of £40 is likely to be recovered quickly and in the long-term you will save a good deal of money. You can also rest safe in the knowledge that the outlay will be recovered - if at least £40 of annual energy savings aren’t identified then the cost of the Green Home Energy Assessment will be refunded.
There are many ways to cut down your home’s emissions and small steps can help to ensure that you use less gas and electricity on a daily basis. In fact, there are tens of different ways to save money and energy. Here are ten most popular that you could put into action.
The first way to cut down on emissions is to have your house insulated. By insulating your home you help to ensure that less heat escapes, and as a result you don’t need to use as much energy to keep your house warm during the winter.
By having your cavity walls insulated you could save around £115 a year, an amount that certainly isn’t to be sniffed at. By insulating your loft you could save an extra £150 a year, and therefore this combination really can save householders a good deal of money.
Secondly, one thing that many of us are guilty of is leaving our electrical items and gadgets on standby. This is largely due to laziness, but making the small effort to turn your electrical appliances off rather than leave them on standby can help to cut down your emissions.
You will probably be surprised by the amount of power that an electrical item uses when it is on standby. The simple act of turning off your TV and all the electrical accessories attached to it off can save £30 a year. Remembering to switch the computer off can save a further £10, ensuring that this simple step will make a noticeable dent in your home’s emissions levels.
One of the biggest sources of energy emissions in homes up and down the country is central heating. In the UK’s bitter winters it can get really cold and there is nothing nicer than turning the heating up and snuggling up in the warm.
This, however, can cost a lot of money and even a small adjustment of your thermostat can increase emissions significantly. By turning your thermostat down just one degree C you could save an impressive £60 a year - pretty hefty amount considering you’re unlikely to notice the change in temperature.
Staying with the weather and Britain may not enjoy that many hot days over the course of the year, but when the sun is shining you should always use the natural heat to dry your clothes. When it isn’t sunny outside you can still let your clothes hang to dry, and by not using a tumble dryer to dry your clothes savings of around £40 a year can be achieved.
A fifth step that can be taken to reduce your home’s emissions is to double glaze all of your house’s windows. A vast amount of heat escapes through the windows, and by double glazing them you can reduce the heat lost by half, saving more than £100 a year on your heating bills in the process.
To further lessen the amount of heat escaping through windows and doors, homeowners may wish to consider draught proofing using a fix brush or PVC seal. This will ensure that as little heat as possible escapes from your house, meaning that less energy is required to heat your property.
There are further ways to stop heat escaping and thus reduce emissions. These include installing a hot water cylinder jacket and primary pipe work insulation. Further to this, silver foil can be put behind any radiators fixed to external walls, which will help reflect heat back around the room.
An additional thing that can be done to reduce a property’s emissions is to install a modern, energy-efficient boiler. A lot of energy is wasted by older, inefficient boilers and thus more energy has to be used to keep a house warm. Installing a new boiler and controls may be a considerable outlay initially, but you will soon get that back as it can save households up to £235 a year.
The energy-saving tips outlined above illustrate ten ways in which you can reduce your home’s emissions and consequently save monthly on your annual energy bills. Home insulation is one of the major things as loft and cavity wall insulation can help to keep the heat in your house instead of escaping. But little things such as turning all of your electrical gadgets off instead of leaving them on standby can also make a massive difference. Taking all of these steps can significantly reduce your emissions, which is great news for the environment, while you can look forward to saving money on your gas bills.