Saving Energy, Saving Cash
15/07/2009 by BRITISH GAS
Going into the next decade the price of fuel is going to be one of the major problems for households everywhere. Fuel providers like British Gas have offered cuts in their gas prices in recent months*, but even then it’s still important to keep your bills as low as possible, particularly with the oil price heading back up since January.
Anything that you can do to reduce the amount of fuel that you use will save you money. Simple things such as turning the thermostat on the central heating in your house down can save a ridiculous amount of energy. If you reduce the temperature of your house by just 1 degree it can save you as much as 10% of your heating bill. Likewise if you turn down your hot water thermostat you’ll save a similar amount of money, the temperature gauge should be set at about 60C and having it set any hotter is an unnecessary waste of money.
Other things that you can do to save on your fuel bill is make sure that your curtains are drawn early and that you have draft excluders fitted to the bottom of your doors. The ultimate aim is to make sure that the heat you have doesn’t drain away, this means that the boiler has to work less hard to get up to temperature, and that it will have to do less to maintain that temperature. That’s why the government has worked to make it cheaper for people to get their houses thoroughly insulated.
Of course, if you have an old boiler, at the end of the day there isn’t too much you can do. Spending on insulation is an outlay that will pay you back over several years, as will any measure like putting solar panels on your roof, however, when it comes down to it, you need to make sure that your boiler is as effective as possible. Make sure that it is serviced regularly and if it is a really old model, whilst it can be expensive to get a newer version, it will save you enormous sums of money if you get a brand new, efficient model.
*For their latest gas prices visit the British Gas website.
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