Ten tips to cut the cost of energy bills

There are schemes available to help reduce bills and many ways to cut costs and eliminate waste.

1. Make sure you are on the right tariff

With competition in the energy market, it is easy to switch to a cheaper supplier. Internet price comparison services such as www.theenergyshop.com are useful tools to find out how much you could save by switching to a new supplier. A list of the supply companies operating in your area, together with the prices they charge, is available from Energywatch, the gas and electricity watchdog, by calling 0845 906 0708. Whenever prices are quoted, you should make sure that they include VAT.

2. Check your entitlement

Billions of pounds’ worth of benefits go unclaimed every year, and fuel-poor households could be entitled to significant rebates. If you're aged 60 or over, you can claim a tax-free Winter Fuel Payment of £250 or more, which should be paid in automatically if you receive a State Pension. If you are over sixty and not receiving the payment, the claim form will be available from July 2008 – for more details and to check your eligibility, call the government’s Winter Fuel Payment helpline on 08459 151 515.

3. Social Tariffs

All six of the major energy suppliers have begun to finance social tariffs, which offer fuel discounts of up to £300 a year to Britain’s most vulnerable – the elderly, the disabled, families with young children and those on income support. Currently these discounts do not apply automatically and there are no uniform eligibility criteria. To investigate further, call your energy supplier and ask if you could benefit.

4. Check your bills

Millions of customers may have been overcharged by Npower, after Times readers uncovered apparent flaws in the energy giant’s billing systems. Energywatch believes that excess charges could total more than £50 million and urges all gas customers to check their bills, saying, “we think up to 2.2 million npower customers could have suffered.” Ofgem, the energy regulator, is currently investigating the claims. If you think that you have been overcharged click here to download our complaint letter.

5. Find a grant to improve the energy efficiency of your home

An estimated 66 per cent of home heat is lost through poorly insulated roofs and walls, and fixing the problem could represent a sizeable saving on your energy bills. Government grants of up to £4,000 are available to help cover the cost through the Warmfront scheme. Grants cover loft- and cavity wall insulation, draft prevention, repairs of faulty boilers and assessment of your home’s energy status. Although in most cases only those on certain benefits can apply for the scheme, a spokesperson for Warmfront said that “more and more people are applying successfully, and there is enough funding for everyone who is eligible.” To check your eligibility, freephone 0800 316 6011.

6. Get free advice

Ron Cambell of National Energy Action advises all customers to freephone 0800 512 012 to speak to their local Energy Efficiency Advice centre. These centres also maintain complete listings of all grants and sources of benefit aid and home improvement available in your local area.

7. Get switched on

Turning off the lights when you leave a room is a simple and cost-effective habit to get into, but your choice of light bulb can make even more of a difference to your final bill. Energy-efficient light bulbs last up to 10 times longer and use a fraction of the power required by ordinary bulbs. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that each energy-efficient light bulb saves the average household £7 a year in electricity bills.

8. Radiator sense

There are plenty of adjustments you can make to stop radiators draining your energy bills. Avoid putting large items of furniture in front of them, blocking heat flow; if you dry your clothes indoors, hang them over drying racks rather than dampening the heating power of your radiators with cold, soggy laundry. You can also wrap tinfoil around pieces of cardboard and slot them behind your radiators to reflect heat back into the room. GCSE science, but it works!

9. Curtains to energy wastage

Invest in thicker curtains to retain heat, and make sure they are cut to fit your windows properly, resting just below the bottom of the pane. Heat can be funnelled away under curtains that are too long, especially if the radiators are located underneath the windows in a room. Cheap net curtains provide an extra layer of insulation and help to retain heat whilst letting natural light into a room.

10. Turn your laptop off

Huge amounts of energy are wasted every day by power-hungry laptops and desktops being left switched on whilst not in use. Computer monitors in screen-save mode reduce energy consumption by only a few watts. Up to 75 per cent of energy used to power home electronics is used when these devices are ‘switched off,’ costing British households an estimated £800 million a year in fuel bills. Set your computer to hibernate when you aren’t using it, and take an extra thirty seconds to switch it off properly at the end of the day. Dimming the monitor by just a few settings of brightness can also save a great deal of energy, as well as being kinder on the eyes.

List compiled by Laurie Penny

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Comments

[Graham Hill]

Putting tinfoil behind a radiator has no effect as a radiator does not actually radiate heat.

It only acts as a convector for warm air.

[Mauberley]

Actually a computer in Hibernate mode is, in terms of electricity, completely switched off - so you don't have to use full switch off.

In effect, hibernate simply copies all RAM into ROM - on your hard disk - and powers off the computer. When you load up the next time, the hard disk is switched on and the ROM is loaded back to RAM.

Moreover Vista is configured to do this automatically rather than fully switch off.

Just a wee nit-picky point. The tinfoil tip for the radiators is excellent I hadn't thought of that!

[H Brown]

Bigger SSE Price Rise if you live on Merseyside!
I have just had an interesting conversation with SSE AKA Atlantic Energy.
They agreed with me that based on my present price for gas and electric, i.e. 2.49 and 9.87 respectively, my new price on 25 August should be 3.217(=2.49*1.292) and 11.765. I then told them that I had entered my post code (L34) into the prices section of their web site and the numbers 3.31 and 12.18 were coming up. The SSE person duly checked this and confirmed that these prices were showing on the web site.
I asked which set of prices I would be paying. The answer was: I would be paying the published web prices. These prices represent an increase of 32.9% for gas and 23.4% for electricity and not the 29.2 and 19.2 widely advertised.
Are customers aware of this deception?

[Darren Ward]

"Its ok for those on benefits and low earners (who can get all the benefits going)"

Typical misconception!!!

I am on benefits and get NO help whatsoever with Rates, Council Tax, Energy or anything. You have to be on Income Support to get "everything" and to get income Support you can't have a partner working full-time.

My partner has to work between 50-55 hrs per week just so we can keep our heads above water.

Think before spout off!!

[Dave Bridge]

When we have done all of the above to save money and the energy company's profits are going down, guess what? They will raise their prices again so you will be no better off.
THE MARKET IS NOT WORKING!

[Marnie]

What about people in rural areas who have to use oil??
I haven't dared to find out our local suppliers price....especially when we had to pay by credit card the last time we needed oil due to our income dropping dramatically!
Altho I did manage to cap our electricity until 2011 by servicing it online

[ak]

The whole idea of having an energy market is that you have competition which drives prices down, close to the marginal cost of production, hence according to standard economic theory energy companies make very small (close to zero) profits. Thats the idea behing energy deregulation and privatization in the US and europe. However, i think we ought to rething this approach for a variety of reasons. First of all a market is well functioning when there is competition among the firms and not a cartel. Do we see this happening in the UK? I think yes, especially if other energy companies follow BG and increase their prices. We dont need to have evidence of the CEOs coordinating the price increases in order to act. I think its time to perhaps fragment further the energy supplier market, and perhaps increase pound for pound the amount of taxation on these companies in order to redistribute income towards the poorest people. Therefore the government should take every penny in profits the energy companies make compared to the 2007 and give it as a subsidy to the poor, so that everyone will know that any price increases will result in zero extra profits for the shareholders compared to a year ago. Otherwise, if the energy market fails to deliver lower prices then it makes more sense to actually renationalise the industry

[ak]

The whole idea of having an energy market is that you have competition which drives prices down, close to the marginal cost of production, hence according to standard economic theory energy companies make very small (close to zero) profits. Thats the idea behing energy deregulation and privatization in the US and europe. However, i think we ought to rething this approach for a variety of reasons. First of all a market is well functioning when there is competition among the firms and not a cartel. Do we see this happening in the UK? I think yes, especially if other energy companies follow BG and increase their prices. We dont need to have evidence of the CEOs coordinating the price increases in order to act. I think its time to perhaps fragment further the energy supplier market, and perhaps increase pound for pound the amount of taxation on these companies in order to redistribute income towards the poorest people. Therefore the government should take every penny in profits the energy companies make compared to the 2007 and give it as a subsidy to the poor, so that everyone will know that any price increases will result in zero extra profits for the shareholders compared to a year ago. Otherwise, if the energy market fails to deliver lower prices then it makes more sense to actually renationalise the industry.

[pieter bijma]

its bad they have a profit while the people in uk and other country s pay more and more it just and fair .i think the goverment s must react on this kind of profits .the rich get richer the poor are gettin poorer this way protest against it!!!!!!!

[Richard Dormer]

A 35% increase from British Gas is not good for consumers. We at BusinessSwitch work with businesses to reduce energy costs and the situation in the business market is even worse! Most companies are receiving renewal letters with 50-100% increases in gas and the highest electricity renewal this year was from BG at 609%!

[martin wakelin]

I am really thankful that I fixed my rate in 2006 til 2010. Not looking forward to 2010 though.

[Julie]

Its ok for those on benefits and low earners (who can get all the benefits going) to get grants to improve the energy efficiency of their home, what about those of us who work our butts of full time as well as having a second job who still can't make ends meet due to the cost of living these days..

[Jan Moore]

If you are not using gas or electricity you must be sending mail by osmosis from your 'yurt' in Norfolk!?!

[tony]

this is ridiculous, why is everyone still with British Gas? there are companies out there that guarantee to always be cheaper than British Gas, and, or have been the cheapest over the last 5 year period... just really gets my goat every time there's a scare story about how bad they are... just get a better provider

Check these guys out
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/store/index.taf?exref=582798

[Geoff Jensen]

I must be a dinosaur as well,when a child was born in the uk pre thatcher it had a stake in gas,water,electric, the post office,mining,railways.telephone

lost forever in the quest for wider share ownership

[max]

Mum Switched of all the radiators. So what that i'm freezing to death and getting ill.

Use a lamp instead of the 6 bulb main light

Not much else we can do.
At least i stil get hot water. wohoo

[Ruben]

Check this out

[MCS]

Maybe I'm just one of those dinosaurs berated by the economic paladins of post- Thatcher Britain, but oh for the days when there was one outfit supplying gas, one supplying electricity etc - and there was no nonsense of 'switching' to save a few pennies - only to find tariffs suddenly change, or to find that the 'typical' saving applies to the untypical few. Meanwhile the fat cats running these companies - which as utilities are relatively risk free - trouser wadloads of cash at the expense of customers and their own, more lowly paid employees.

[devorgilla]

I'm not going to turn on my central heating this winter. I wouldn't give them the money. Not the rip off energy giants; not the Russians; not the Saudis. Stuff the lot of them.

I'm getting an efficient wood burning stove (British logs; a renewable source); heat only one room; and wear heavy woollen clothes suitable to our climate.

Back to the 1950s!

[Mr Barnes]

The Government needs to get tough with the wretched energy companies. Simple as that.

[S Askins]

What is the merit/demerit of heating domestic hot water in a fully insulated tank, via either a modern condensing gas boiler or an immersion heater?

[J Christ]

Drive a Toyota Pious. Sorry, wrong blog.

[Graham Goody]

Number 11. Put on a jumper if you feel cold. It's much cheaper

[Paul]

Presumably the blog entry was created on a PC manufactured using renewable energy, powered by energy from a wind turbine/solar PV panel, methane digester.
I don't know how this average is obtained - my annual utility bill is around £700 for a 4 bed detached house with effectively 4 adults living in it. 2 PCs, 2TVs, Washing Machine, Spin Dryer, Tumble Dryer, Dishwasher. What are people doing to use that much energy?

[A M Normal]

Jesus wept! What sort of people is this blog attracting. Yurt, Norfolk, mother earth. Frightening...

[Derek Deeley]

@ hammerton. I don't think I have ever read such misguided drivel. High and rising prices are a result of global economic facotrs, serious structural problems with the industry, declining reserves in the north sea, years of under investment and suppliers who act like a cartel. It is not down to price comparison sites or newspapers. My god, you are stupid.

[Satya (Truth)]

I do not use gas or electricity but live in a sustainable yurt in Norfolk. I am a TRUE FRIEND OF MOTHER EARTH

[Sean Hamerton]

Advertising for www.theenergyshop.com are we!!.
It's companies like them that increase the fuel costs.
Energy companies pay them to be listed on their site and usually a commission for every 'switched' customer.
Newspapers that champion particular energy 'switching' companies also get a nice bung.
Where does all this money come from??
The Public.
So energy swiching companies infact ADD to the cost of energy.
They also spend their time priming the market with tales of woe about price increases.
Energy 'switching' companies WANT price increases and do their upmost to bring it about.
Newspapers, Energy and energy 'switching' companies are the ENEMY of the People!.

[Tony]

Times Online newsroom today: "Credit crunch credit crunch credit crunch. Oh, highest spending in 22 years... erm... what crunch shall we right about now!"