Great Tips On How To Save Energy And Money ,Take A Look Now!

The easiest of all is to switch off lights when you are not in the room. By switching off computers will also save a lot of energy, just the computer fan alone uses around 300 watts which is equivalent to having on 15 low energy light bulbs. Change all your light bulbs to CFL (low energy bulbs). Most people complain that these lights are dim, but once on for a while they heat up and become much brighter. Most household appliances have standby lights on them, did you know that a DVD recorder can use 100 watts in standby mode? Most of us have DVD’s and TV’s and just by switching them off fully you will straight away be saving yourself money. Try to get the whole family involved by turning off unused appliances, you will be amazed at your next electric bill on how much you have saved.

Some energy companies are supplying energy meters free of charge, so why not get one of these and then you can see for yourself how much energy you are saving each day?

Another simple energy saving tip is to use an egg timer while you or your family take a shower. Set it to a maximum of five minutes, when the bell goes off turn the shower off. A family of four taking a five minute shower per day will use around 3 kilowatts if heated by electric; you can double this for a 10 minute shower. If you have a water meter you will also be saving half on your water bill. Turning off the tap while cleaning teeth and only boiling the right amount of water in your kettle will also save you money on electric and water bills.

Most households have central heating systems installed; the most common will be powered by gas, this is generally cheaper to run than most electric systems. The easiest way to control central heating is by a room thermostat, just turning the room stat down by 1 degree will save a lot of energy and you will see a big reduction on your bills.

Living rooms, family rooms and dinning rooms are best heated up to 21 degrees this is the temperature that we all feel most comfortable at. Bedrooms should be set to 18 degrees or less; this is the optimun temperature for the best nights sleep. Bedrooms can be controlled by TRV valves (radiator thermostats) these are not hard to install but you will probably need a plumber to do this for you.

The latest condensing boilers are great at saving energy, being 92% efficient. An old open flue boiler will probably be only 65% efficiency and so it would be best to replace this as soon as possible. A programmable roomstat is excellent for controlling room temperatures. Many of the modern roomstats can have 6 differernt time zones in a day which can be set to 6 different temperatures to suit you.

Hot water cylinders come in all shapes and sizes. Some have a spray foam lagging, some have a jacket and I have even seen hot water cylinders with no lagging!.Your local builder’s merchants will sell a retrofit jacket to put on your cylinder, so the thicker the lagging the longer the water stays hot which in turn leads to you saving money.

Saving water is easy: you can put a brick in the toilet system or a sealed plastic bag with water in and place in the cistern making sure, of course, this does not interfere with the ballcock. This alone could save a litre of water per flush. If you wash your car make sure you use a spray gun on the end of the hose instead of wasting the water by letting it just flow down the drains. Turning the tap off when cleaning your teeth is also a big saver of water, particulary when you remember that we should spend at least 3 minutes each time we clean our teeth.

Lagging the loft saves enormous amounts of energy and this need not be very expensive. You can get lagging companies to do this for you; if you are over 70 you will be able to get it free. Whilst your loft is being lagged you could also have your brick cavity walls filled with chopped fibre lagging. Did you know that the heat loss from your roof can be up to 30% and your walls up to 40%?

Sealing up around ill fitting doors and windows will also help to conserve energy and warmth. If you have an open fire, sealing this when not in use saves warmth as heat from your central heating just goes straight up the chimney. There is a purpose built balloon you can purchase to put up the chimney, just remember to take it out if going to reuse the fireplace.

With all the money you have saved by changing your living habits as above, why not put this towards having a hot water solar panel installed? Having solar panels could supply all your water during the summer months for free. However, one minor point to remember is just to make sure the cylinder gets up to 60 degrees once a week to ensure that any bacteria in the water is killed off.

When you stop and think about it, all the suggestions above are simple and easy to do. The best thing of all is that not only are you helping the planet and future generations but you are also helping yourself straight away to save money.

Please check out our website if your interested in anything to do with Renewable Energy
http://www.natural-energysolutions.co.uk
http://www.natural-energysolutions.co.uk/solarpanels.html

Thank you for reading, British Gas Energy Smart
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