Welcome to the Energy Saving Tips page 

www.energysaving.co.uk

Tip 1 Enjoy saving the Earth

We are all responsible for the excess of carbon dioxide that has created the effect of 'global warming'. We cannot think of it as someone else's problem - we've created it. However, if we all do our bit, whether it's reducing our energy consumption or demanding faster adoption of renewable energy, we can start to make a difference. 

Tip 2 Enjoy saving a penny

To find the motivation to reduce our energy bills, we all need to get excited about saving pennies. Strangely enough, saving 50p a day is not very exciting for most people, but saving £182.50 a year is. Think about it!

The following tips are about how we can run our household more efficiently, and reduce energy consumption:

Tip 3 Reduce your lighting bill

Yes you've heard it before, but it will save you pounds; it's the much maligned 'energy saving' lightbulb. The main criticisms have been that they're:

• too large
• too stark
• too expensive

So it's understandable that there's consumer resistance. However, now there's a wide range of lights and styles available, with some applications  just crying out to make use of their main advantages, which are:

• They use approx 20% of the power of a normal bulb
• They can last up to 10 times longer or more
• You can get small bulbs

So why not try one or two out, especially where the 'quality of life' argument is less likely to be an issue. Try them in hallways, the garage or outdoors. In fact what about the porch light that tends to be left on for long periods, especially during the winter months.

Tip 4 Preserve your light fittings

Light fittings will indicate the maximum wattage bulb that can be installed. However, even fitting this bulb will produce a heating effect that will degrade the light fitting, especially the wiring over a prolonged period of time. This effect can be drastically reduced by fitting a lower wattage bulb that gives out the same amount of light. And what bulb does that? Yes, its the same old answer...the energy saving light bulb.

Although an approximation:

20W energy saving bulb = 100W incandescent bulb

Energy saving bulbs will therefore produce less heat and prolong the life of your light fittings.

Tip 5 Be aware of 'light heat'

If you use energy saving lights throughout the house you may find you have to turn your heating up. Why? because normal incandescent light bulbs convert a larger proportion of their electricity into heat. For a normal 100W incandescent bulb, these proportions are approximately:

3W produces light and 97W produces heat

This means that the replacement of approximately twelve 100W incandescent light bulbs with equivalent energy saving bulbs that only produce approximately 17W of heat, would be the equivalent of turning off a 1kW electric fire. So, during winter months you may need to find extra heat from somewhere.

Remember, this is also why it makes sense to use energy saving light bulbs outdoors. If you use normal incandescent bulbs indoors, at least the house is benefiting from the heat they generate, whereas outdoors your losing all the heat to the atmosphere.

Tip 6 The best energy saving light bulb?

One that's turned off! Even if you have energy saving bulbs installed, it is a good habit to switch them off whenever you're not using a room. Although you're going to save less than if you had a normal incandescent bulb burning away, energy saving is as much about adopting a mindset where you are not getting lazy and being wasteful. It's a good habit to get into.

Tip 7 Which light bulb is the most efficient, when turned on?

The label shown below will be seen on the packaging of any light bulb that you buy. This label indicates that your light bulb has a 'Class A' rating which means that it's the most efficient. A 'Class G' rating would be the mean that the light bulb is the least efficient.

For example, energy saving lamps are normally rated in 'Class A or B', halogen lamps usually fall into 'Class D', and traditional incandescent lamps into 'Class E or F'

If you want to know exactly what each of these classes mean, click on the link below to check out 'The Energy Information (Lamps) Regulations 1999': 

http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1999/19991517.htm

Tip 8 Hot water tank thermostat settings

Some baths, like the older cast-iron models can use a lot of hot water if you going to have a decent soak. However, if the thermostat setting on your hot water tank is too low you could end up emptying your hot water tank to fill the bath. This will mean heating up another tank from cold which will use lots of energy. And of course, the tank always gets emptied just before someone else wants a bath or you're about to do the washing up. So what happens then? Yes, it's time to switch on the emersion heater and I guess you  know that emersion heaters and the subject of energy saving are not comfortable bedfellows!

One answer is to raise the temperature setting on the hot water tank thermostat. This will mean using less hot water to fill your bath as you'll need to add cold water to get the bath temperature just right.

However, don't raise the temperature if you have any concerns about the hot water scalding, especially where children and the infirm are concerned. 

Tip 9 Cavity insulation for solid walls

You're right, it's a nonsense, just the same as putting solar panels on your roof would be if you had a 'listed building' or a house in a conservation area. However, there's a message here. Although these are obvious cases, we're all being constantly bombarded with advertising material and tempting offers of energy saving improvements which are less clear cut. The moral here is that you should know your home and it's environment well enough to be able to make a sound judgment. And if you don't, please get professional advice first before you commit yourself.

Tip 10 Letter box draughts

Letter boxes are notorious for letting in a draught.  One solution is to fit brush strip over the letter box. However, the downside is that these devices make it almost impossible to push newspapers and magazines fully through. This means that you'll probably arrive home from work to find that the newspaper will be rolled up and sticking out of the letterbox, and creating a worse draught than you would have had before the brush strip was fitted. It's your call on this one.

Tip 11 Turning the heat down

Turning down your central heating by just 1°C is supposed to save you in the region of 10% on your heating bills. Obviously you don't want to be cold, but if you're in an environment where it's too warm, you have a very good reason for turning the heating down. 

Tip 12 Insulated jackets

Do make sure that your hot water tank is protected by an insulated jacket. Check with your retailer to ensure you get one that is of the correct size and thickness.

Tip 13 Recycling wood

It's amazing how many people have wood to dispose of following a bout of DIY or other house maintenance activity. Much of this will go into skips or be burnt on bonfires as a means of disposal. However, there are many people who would be delighted to use the wood as fuel for their kitchen ranges or wood-burning stoves. Do ask if anyone locally would like it as it could help you with your disposal costs as well as reduce their fuel bills.

Tip 14 Choosing the right car

One of the areas we can help ourselves and our environment is in our choice of cars.  If you are feeling moral about the whole thing and are not a "Mrs Hyacinth Bucket" go to this featured site before choosing your new car. It has long been appreciated that we all have our part to play in reducing the impact of the motor vehicle - and you don't need to be a rabid tree-hugger to help.  This site will help buyers of new cars to minimise the impact of any vehicle they might buy by identifying those areas whereby the environmental impact can be minimised.
The site is: http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/index.asp

Tip 15 Here's some more excellent tips!

1. Make a game of telling children that you will give them 2p every time they switch off a light in a room that nobody seems to be using or that is not needed.

2. Don't overfill your kettle when making drinks. Most kettles have a minimum level to fill to for safety reasons but it is usually more than enough for making two cuppas.

3. Delay the need for turning on the heating by wearing more clothing - in
layers not necessarily thicker clothing. Turn it off earlier in the spring by the same practice.

4. Don't use partial loads in your washing machine or dishwasher and the next time you change, buy one of the new "drizzle" type machines they save up to 60% in water consumption and 40% in energy.  Only use a tumble dryer in an emergency - get your clothes outside on the garden line. As well as saving energy they smell better.

5. Turn off all devices that use standby - you can save a small fortune - some of the large modern flat screen televisions can use in excess of 300watts ON STANDBY!  Go and look at the power cord on your new television - it's a great big thick one compared with 20 years ago... I wonder why? This represents half the cost of running an electric kettle continuously - would you keep an electric kettle running all the time 24 hrs/day?  That is what you are doing every other day by leaving one of the large modern flatscreen TVs on standby.

6. Your cellphone charger can use about £10/year by being left plugged in and switched on - even if the phone is not connected!  Also turn your cellphone off over night so you have to charge them less often. This is another game you can play with the children. (How many cellphones are in your house?)

7. Adding loft insulation, and taking the heating down by three degrees can easily save 20% on heating bills - perhaps more.

8. Put a timer on your immersion heater (mechanically driven if you can get it - they are quite difficult to find but they ARE available).  Ensuring that you keep it off at every available opportunity can save nearly as much as the last tip. Water immersion heaters are massive consumers of electricity.

A bit of philosophy... Some of these tips seem trivial, but THINK!  Multiply the trivial tips by 23 million (the number of households in the UK) and see how trivial that is!

(With thanks to our contributor Brian Timmins - see http://www.brianstimelines.co.uk for more about this unique individual)

Tip 16 Save paper...and trees

Whether you're a business user or an individual, you can help encourage people's thinking as well as demonstrate your own green credentials by putting this message on the bottom of your emails: "Think Green - Please do not print this email unless it's really necessary"