This is a Guest Post.
A trip abroad, visits to the seaside, the zoo and far too many days out to count. The school summer holidays are an expensive time for families; and when they’re gone it’s not long before you get to the half-term and Christmas… Having a family can get costly!
Any way you can save money here and there through the year can really add up. One of the biggest bills faced by a lot of us is our energy bill. I’ve put together a few hints and tips I’ve managed to find which will help you make some big savings – almost £400 per year from your gas and electricity bills. You might even find you have a few pounds left for yourself for all those ice-creams!
1. Wrap up warmer
Your mum always told you to wrap up warm and she had a point. I don’t mean dressing the kids in more and more jumpers till they look like the Michelin man or snuggling up with your other half under a slanket, I mean a jumper for your home. More specifically, insulation. Lining the loft of an average detached house can reduce energy wastage and thus your family’s energy bills. The average saving? up to £240 per year.
Throw in cavity wall insulation and you could save another £250. Unfortunately in this case you have to spend money to save money with insulation costing around £395 for a detached property. It’ll take a couple of years before you are back in the black, but the upshot is a warmer home in the winter and a cooler one in the summer with much less energy spent on heating or cooling the house.
Potential saving: £240 per year
2. Descale
I’m not talking downsizing where you live. Were getting rid of limescale, big time. Limescale lurks away in our heating and water pipes. Families in hard-water areas will experience a constant build up of limescale. It clogs up everything from water pipes to washing machines and dishwashers making them much less efficient and shortening their lifespan. In hard water areas it adds around £100 a year to energy bills.
Treating hard water boils down to spending money. There are two ways, firstly spending around £1000 on a water softening system, which will take around a decade to pay for itself but is a proven method. The second way is less proven but cheaper, install an ‘electric field’ gadget that plugs into the mains and generates electricity through coils of wire wrapped around the water supply pipe. This aims to break up calcium deposits so they do not fur up your pipework. The small device costs about £100 and start saving you money after the first year.
Potential saving: £100 a year
3. Slow down in the kitchen
The way you cook can have a much bigger effect on your energy bills than you might think. Cooking by hob for just 30 minutes per day costs around £90 per year! ‘Slow’ down. Slow cooking for 8 hours a day while you’re out at work costs just £14 a year, a saving of £76 per year. Switching on the microwave for 10 minutes a day costs as little as £3 per year. £3, a saving of £87. You may not want to cook every meal by microwave or slow cooker but skipping the hob now and then can save you money and is greener for the planet too.
Potential saving: £76 – £87 a year
So that’s how I’ve found out how to save almost £400 a year of my energy bill. If you use all of my recommendations you could save even more, a grand total of £677 – that’s more than a few family days out next summer!
You can find more great tips on energy saving gadgets, check out this guide to energy saving devices from OVO Energy
This post was brought to you in association with OVO Energy. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make JuggleMum possible.
We bought a wood burner and that has helped save energy – keeps us warm going on walks to pick up wood too 🙂 Great tips – we always throw on an extra jumper and sometimes if I’m lounging about I’ll put my dressing gown on over my clothes. Not a great look but does the trick LOL
I’m like you – always put on an extra layer rather than turn the heat up! Some of my friends are the other way round though:-)
Lots of great tips there, I would never even have thought of the descaling thing, will have to look into that, it’s really bad here…
I would never have thought of that either, it’s not immediately obvious is it?
Some great tips there and we could all do with lower bills
Fab tips, I think most people would like to lower their bills. I like the slow cooker idea but don’t ever use a microwave.
I was amazed at the cost difference between a slow cooker and the hob!
I am always cold. Even now i have a hot water bottle with me and thick socks on and it is August!!
Lots of great tips here.. thank you for sharing.
Fantastic tips. I would love to have the cash to invest in a log burning. It is on our list as is a garage conversion
I think we all have a master list don’t we?! On mine is doing our front garden… It won’t save me anything on the energy bills though:-)
Descale is such a good one x
I really need to start using my slow cooker more this autumn. Plus the descale tips is really good too.
Some good ideas here for saving money (and being eco-friendly too). We love using our slow cooker in the autumn and winter – delicious food for minimal effort.
And I can recommend OVO. We signed up with them a couple of years ago, and our bills are much lower than they used to be.
Some great tips here ~ the savings could pay for a weekend away
We used to live in an old house, with a very poor energy efficiency. We did try the roof insulation and the cavity insulation but we didn’t find the house bills improving massively. Hubby works now as an energy assessor and since we moved house into a much newer and better insulated property our energy bills have halved!xx
I hadn’t realised that limescale was so costly.
I am actually not a fan of heating and it only goes on when there is a chance the pipes could freeze. I suffer with constant high temperatures and am always too hot. I didn’t realise limescale was a factor though!
i never thought using a slow cooker would save money on energy – great tip!!
Some really great tips Nadine, especially the wall insulation and the slow cooker – not that we have either! I’m terrible with the cold, end up dressing like an eskimo in Winter even with the heating on LOL 🙂
Some good tips here. LED bulbs throughout the home can also save a whopping 11% off your electricity bills too.