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Your Choice Energy efficiency is your choice
Making energy efficient improvements to your home, as well as changing your lifestyle, can considerably cut your annual household gas and electricity bills. But that’s not all you can do. You also have the choice to switch energy suppliers, meaning you can change to a tailor-made tariff that suits your home’s energy needs and your pocket. And if you want to do even more, there is always the choice to “Go Green”. This section of the guide looks at a few of the alternatives that you can choose from that could save you even more on your energy bills.
Switching Suppliers: According to recent figures (Oct 2007) from fuel regulator Ofgem, it’s estimated that the average customer could save between £60 and £100 on their annual home energy bills simply by changing their gas and electricity suppliers.
However, you can actually save a lot more by just taking the time to compare suppliers and tariffs. The amount that you can save depends on a number of factors, including who currently supplies your energy, how you pay for it, how much energy you use on average each year and who you will be switching to.
If you don’t already pay by Direct Debit, you should definitely consider paying this way. Most energy suppliers charge a fee for processing your payment if you don’t pay by Direct Debit. By changing to Direct Debit payments you will boost the amount you’re saving even more, whilst also ensuring that you’re never fined for a late payment.
You should also consider an online-only account with paperless billing. This not only helps the environment but it will also allow you to eliminate the risk of being over-charged by an estimated bill since you will be entering your own meter readings. What’s more, paperless billing accounts are often the cheapest on the market, as they allow energy suppliers to pass on their savings to you.
Finally, anyone paying for their energy with a pre-payment meter should definitely switch to a standard payment system if they’re able to do so. Whilst pre-payment meters do help with budgeting, they tend to be more expensive and Ofgem reports that people switching from a pre-payment meter stand to save the most - more than £170 in some areas of the country. Capped tariffs are available for anyone concerned about escalating costs, and many energy suppliers offer discounts and special tariffs for people struggling to cope with the cost of their energy. Use www.EnergyChoices.co.uk online price comparison calculator to see how much your household could save by switching suppliers.
Changing your habits at home will have a significant impact on your energy use.
Behaving Badly
You are probably wasting energy without even realising it. ‘Behaving badly’ can have a significant impact on your energy bills and the environment.
Simple things such as leaving the fridge door open for longer than necessary and not turning lights off when leaving a room are considered bad energy behaviour. If you only wash half a load of dirty washing you’ll be wasting both water and electricity (or electricity and hot water depending on your machine). Washing on a high temperature can also be wasteful, as the majority of washing powders are just as effective on a lower temperature.
Leaking taps are another example of bad energy behaviour – in just one day, a dripping hot water tap can waste energy and enough water to fill a bath. Make sure that all taps are turned off and leak-free.
Changing your habits can save you money. You can actually become more energy efficient without spending a penny, simply by changing certain habits around your home. If you’re going away during the winter, you should leave your thermostat on a low setting to provide protection from freezing at minimum cost. Hot water needs to be hot, but never scalding. Turning down the thermostat on your hot water cylinder to 60ºC could save you around £10 a year, and the water will be the perfect temperature for bathing and washing.
Making sure you put the plug in the basin or sink when running hot water will ensure the money you’re paying on heating costs isn’t literally going down the drain. Closing your curtains at dusk will stop heat escaping through the windows.
Energy efficiency is your choice
Going Green: There are a few effective alternatives to fossil fuels that can meet your energy requirements, and reduce your household’s CO² emissions. These alternatives are called renewable energy sources, because they will either never run out - like the wind, the sun or water – or, they are replaceable - like waste products and crops. These can reduce our dependence on non-renewable sources. Renewable energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and biomass heaters are becoming increasingly popular.
Biomass: Biomass is produced from organic materials, either directly from plants or indirectly from industrial, commercial, domestic or agricultural products. It falls into two categories, woody and non-woody biomass. Biomass is considered to be a carbon neutral fuel that can also contribute to waste management. Small-scale domestic biomass appliances are usually fuelled by wood pellets, wood chips or wood logs.
Producing energy from biomass has both environmental and economic advantages. A biomass boiler could save up to £550 pa on heating bills.
Stand alone room heaters generally cost £2,000 to £4,000 installed. Savings will depend on how much they are used and which fuel you are replacing. Bear in mind that due to the higher cost of biomass pellets compared with other traditional heating fuels, and the relatively low efficiency of the stove compared to a central heating system, it will cost more to run. The BERR funded low carbon buildings programme provides grants to help with the costs of installing biomass technologies. To be eligible for a grant you will need to use a certified installer and products.
Heat Pumps: Heat pumps transfer heat from the ground, air or water into a building to provide heating and, in some cases, to pre-heat domestic hot water. With a ground source heat pump on average you could save from £300 to £1000 on your heating bills, and an air source heat pump could save you between £200 to £750 a year on heating bills, all depending on which fuel is replaced, and on the scale of pump. A typical 6kW domestic system, suitable for a well insulated detached property, costs in the range of £7,000 to £10,000 installed, and would have to be done professionally.
Solar Power: Solar PV (photovoltaic) uses energy from the sun to create electricity to run appliances and lighting. PV systems produce no greenhouse gases and a normal sized system can save around 1.2 tonnes of CO² emissions a year, equating to about 30 tonnes over a system’s lifetime. Solar water heating systems use heat from the sun to work alongside your conventional water heater. Solar water heating can provide you with about a third of your hot water needs. The average domestic system reduces CO² by around 325kg per year when installed in a gas heated property.
Wind Power: Wind power is a clean, renewable source of energy which produces no carbon dioxide emissions or waste products. Wind turbines use the wind’s lift forces to rotate aerodynamic blades that turn a rotor which creates electricity. According to the Energy Saving Trust, here in the UK we have 40% of Europe’s total wind energy. But it’s still a largely untapped source and only 0.5% of our electricity requirements are currently generated by wind power. The BERR funded low carbon buildings programme provides grants to help with the costs of installing domestic small scale wind technologies. To be eligible for a grant you will need to use a certified installer and products.
Planning permission for renewable energy: Installing certain renewable energy systems, such as solar panels, heat pumps and biomass boilers, has now been made a lot simpler thanks to Government development rights. In the UK, changes to permitted development rights for renewable energy sources made on 6th April 2008, have lifted the requirements for planning permission for most domestic energy systems.
The General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) also grants rights to carry out certain limited forms of development on the home, without the need to apply for planning permission. For more information on planning permission for renewable energy sources, log on to www.energysavingtrust.org.uk.
Your Energy Efficient House The ConsumerChoices.co.uk energy efficient house gives an overall indication on the money that you and your household can save on your annual fuel bills by making energy-friendly changes to your own home.
These savings have been calculated using the Energy Saving Trust website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk, a site that offers free, impartial advice on how to reduce your home’s CO² emissions and information on how to apply for government energy-saving grants. The annual savings are based on a gas-heated, three bedroom, semi-detached property. Understandably the age of your home will have a major impact on the level of savings possible, so our figures are offered only as a rough guide. For a more information and specific savings and estimations on installation/DIY costs, visit the Energy Saving Trust website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk.
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