Whether you need to beat the hike in water rates or save on your electricity, there are some classic ways to save money – and then there are the more unusual ones. From using a heated blanket to watering the plants with the bath water, here are some less common – but effective – ways to reduce your energy and water bills. It comes as Ofgem is set to announce its next energy price cap on Tuesday, with analysts expecting it to go up again...
This is a two-for-one kind of energy and money saving technique. First, using a hot water bottle is an effective way to stay warm without whacking up the central heating. And you can reuse the same water a couple of times through the day – just put it back in the kettle to reboil and refill your hot water bottle. When you’re done staying toasty, don’t dump the water down the drain. You can use it to water your plants!.
If you’re the only person at home during the day, it’s more efficient to keep one room toasty warm than heat an entire house. Prepare yourself at the start of the day with the things you need to work from home or relax on the sofa, and use a portable fan heater or oil radiator to get things nice and warm instead of firing up the central heating.
Shut doors and windows, and even curtains if you’ve got single glazing, to avoid draughts taking away the warmth. Alternatively, you could use a heated electric blanket to snuggle under while you work, eliminating the need to heat your room at all – especially now we’re heading towards (slightly!) less cold weather. It’s much cheaper to run an electric blanket for a few hours than your boiler.
No, not because exercise will keep you warm (although a few jumping jacks will always get you warmed up!). Take time to listen to your house. There may be some noises that will tell you what needs attention to avoid expensive maintenance and overly costly energy bills from inefficient appliances.
Does your plumbing rattle when you turn on a hot tap? You could have a pressure issue. Or if there is hissing when your heating is on, air is in your pipes that is reducing the efficiency of your radiators. A weird noise from your boiler is a telltale sign there’s something impacting your heating or hot water, too. Spend time investigating the small, annoying noises that you’ve put down to ‘just the house settling’. Creaky floorboards could be caused by rotting joists, for example – and that means extra draughts, too.
This one is a controversial one – but it can save a LOT of water. If you’re not squeamish, don’t flush the loo every time you go for a wee. It is suggested you flush if you do anything else though... Even flushing every other time will save you around 10 litres of water. For a single person living alone, avoiding three flushes a day saves 30 litres – or almost a cubic metre of water every month (which is about the equivalent of twelve whole baths). It goes up for couples and families, but you’ll want to decide how close you feel to them before implementing this new rule!.
Bathtime with the kids can be quite stressful for some families, especially when it comes to using lots of hot water. Make showering fun! Try to get your kids to race to get clean, see who can do it the fastest or for only children get them to beat yesterday’s time. You can offer rewards like stickers for the fastest time of the week too – gamifying boring and stressful chores makes them more fun for everyone involved, and this is a good way to save on both the energy for heating water and the water usage, too.
You can time yourself, too. Or, take a "Navy shower". This is where you turn the water on to wet your body, then off while you lather up. Only running the water when you actually need it will reduce the cost of heating the water (as less is used) and save how much water you use, too.
Your letterbox is one of the draughtiest places in the home – close it off! Just make sure your postie knows where to put letters instead. You could install an external postbox on the wall by your front door, perhaps. While you’re at it, look for other areas that can be culprits for unwanted breezes in the home. Check your appliances with external ducting, as these can often have unexpected holes or breezy areas. Make sure you’re not blocking off required ventilation, but do use draught tape or other insulating items to minimise breezes.
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