Sharon O'Connor
Tuesday 27th April 2021 - 11:44

Energy saving quick wins, could you be saving?

Sharon is a Phoenix leaseholder and has been our Phoenix Energy Champion since November 2017. Sharon has been providing energy advice remotely during the pandemic and from October 2020 to March 2021, she has helped residents to save a total of £16,000.

Saving on your energy bills means more money left to spend on other things. None of the tips are difficult to do, they just need a bit of organisation and thought. It is all worthwhile when you have a little extra left at the end of the month!

 

Switching off your plug sockets

If you put all your electrical items that get left on standby onto one extension lead in each room, you only have to switch off one plug socket at night.

Afterall, you are paying for the red light that shines at you, or the extra clock on kitchen items blinking away – that’s what costs you the average of £65.00 per year!

Some electrical items also tell you how much energy it uses when left on standby, such as televisions. This can be as high as half of what it uses when being watched…how bad is that?!

 

Check the energy rating on your electrical items

When replacing electrical items, get the best energy rated replacement you can. Most large items have energy rating advice labels which outline how energy efficient the appliance is. The more energy efficient, the more you save!

 

Check how much you pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh)

It’s important to know how much you pay per kWh for your electricity – this will be shown on any energy bill you have had from your supplier. If you are a pay as you go customer, you should be able to find this information on your metre.

On the energy rating labels, it will say ‘energy consumption kWh cycle’. You can compare this with how much you pay per kWh and this will tell you how expensive the appliance will be to use.

Some electrical items will tell you that they are 3 kWhs this just means they use 3 kWs per hour, so if you pay 24p per kW, this item will cost 72p for every hour that it was used.

Thinking about my own habits, I do about five full wash loads per week, so I could save money by finding a supplier that is cheaper than 24p per hour for electricity. If I found a supplier that did 20p per kWh, that would save me about 6p per wash and 30p per week.

OK, so you’re thinking 30p per week is not a lot, however, most months have four weeks in them. This is £1.20 savings per month or over £15.00 per year on one thing, doing the washing, let alone everything else that would cost less to use!

 

Can you do things differently? 

The best tip I can give you to save money on electricity is to think about how much things cost to use. You will then start thinking, is it worth it? Can I do this differently? As humans we are ingenious and are good at finding solutions to problems, however, sometimes we need a little nudge to get us started.

In my next article I will be looking at heating your home and saving money. I know that there are lots of us out there with good ideas, maybe we could start a forum getting as many people as possible interested? We are a community and we should all join together to share best practices to help each other

Happy savings!

 

If you'd like to book an appointment with Sharon for more energy-saving advice, please contact us.