Saving Energy to Pay your Bills
In the current economic climate, homeowners need to save money wherever possible to ensure they keep up with their bills and mortgage repayments. Saving energy is a good way to shave pennies off each bill, and when adding it all together at the end of the month, you will see a considerable difference, and wonder why you did not think of it before. To save money from the most unlikely sources, take note of the below tips and advice.
Saving Energy
Homeowners should always be asking themselves if they save enough energy, whether you have financial difficulties or not. An electrical monitoring device is a great way to keep track on your energy consumption. The sophisticated device will monitor your electricity usage on a day-to-day basis, allowing you to estimate your bill at the end of the month. This is an interesting way to keep tracks on your consumption and plan your monthly budget around your electricity bill, which could be cut by 20% - 30% by monitoring the situation.
Common Sense Tips
Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75% less energy than standard ones, and even though they are more expensive, they will save you money over the long-term. If you own both a Laptop computer and a PC, homeowners would be advised to use the laptop more, because they only use 15-20 watts in contrast to a PC that uses a whopping 150 watts. When a laptop switches to sleep mode it also uses only a fraction of an idle PC. This one may be common sense, but switching off appliances when they are not in use will save untold pennies on your electricity bills. Lights, computers, home theatre systems, televisions and any other device would be better unplugged when you are not using them.
Out of the Cold
Did you know that refrigerators are the most costly appliance in your home for sucking energy? An old fridge can use up to three times more electric as a new one. If you do purchase a new refrigerator, ensure it fits within the economic guidelines that are currently in place. You could save a small fortune over a long period of time.
Turn Down the Heat
Appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers use more energy in the daytime, because of the heat they generate. To save more pennies, perhaps wash your dishes and clothes at night, when the temperatures are much cooler than during the daytime.
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Lower your energy bills - tips...?
1.Turn off lights and appliances
2.Turn down your thermostat by one degree to save up to 10% on your bill
3.Look for energy efficient appliances
4.Lag your hot water tank
5.Consider an online plan - these can be cheaper
6.Pay by direct debit
7.Move to dual fuel
8.Check your meter readings
9.Review your plan once a year
10.Compare suppliers to find the cheapest plan
Thought i would share.... but also, can someone tell me what number 4 exactly means? "lag your hot water tank" :/
Thanks :)As 'energy bills may rise 40% this winter' any money/life saving tips? As OAPs face choice; food or heat, yes?
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Energy bills could go up by 40%
Energy bills could rise from £1,050 on average to almost £1,500
Household energy bills could increase by as much as 40% this winter, the BBC has learned, as oil and wholesale gas prices hit record highs.
The increases could mean households paying £400 more a year on average for their gas and electricity, senior industry sources have said.
The increase is far more than analysts have predicted in recent months.
It would put more pressure on homeowners already struggling with higher food and fuel costs.
Announcements are most likely to come in August, when energy bills are not at the forefront of people's minds, says BBC business correspondent Nils Blythe.
There is a great reluctance in the industry to be the first to reveal a big rise, so the rises may be unveiled in stages
http://yahoo.co.uk/news & http://bbc.co.uk/news
See 'Have your say' & demand public debate, OK?
Hi guys!
I'm off to bed: only tip 4 now is nold army trick of wearing layers to trap warm air - in da house, yes?
Put it this way: I once spent winter in a Rhyl chalet & had 2 duvets & 2 coats on da bed
Ciao 4 now
Or..
if ya wanna bedtime snack..
Chow 4 now!
Ian
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Battling bills - what help is there?
With average gas and electricity costs now totalling more than £1,000 a year, many families may be worried about paying their fuel bills this winter.
This guide outlines what help is available.
KEY NUMBERS
Home Heat helpline
0800 33 66 99
Energywatch helpline
08459 06 07 08
Eaga benefit entitlement check
0191 247 3800
As well as the general help listed here, suppliers often offer grants, special tariffs and other measures on a case-by-case basis.
If you are having trouble paying your bill you should check with your supplier to find out what help is available from them.
General government help
Help in England
Help in Scotland Help in Wales
Help in Northern Ireland
Energy company help
Hi guys!
I just read the last 4/5 replies @ once, so do forgive me forgetting who said what: I rated y'all, OK?
1 guy said OAPs don't matter/are deispensable/expendable
Dude, read Psalm 1
http://BibleGateway.com
I'm 60
Several months before my Jan b'day - last summer - the Jobcentre advised me, in light of my health record, to go on Pension Credit, which I did
For a while, I really struggled with siucidal depression: no-one's fault - yahoo/google that the 1st 2 years after retiring are da most vulnerable for men, as we tend to base our self-esteem on our job/career
Having wirked for decades on self-employed basis (as solo night security guard, sales rep, cleaner, entertainer..) I read much @ motivation
I've always done more for love than for money anyway & I can asure you what Psalm 1 says @ being "fruitful even in old age" aint whistlin' Dixie, y'all!!
(See my profile for inspiration)
Singalonga Elvis' American Trilogy...Hi hunni
Most OAP's get a Cold Weather payment of at least £200, every year to help with heating bills through the winter period.
disabled people however only get small payments if the temperature drops below a certain point for a few days in any one week, hardly fair is it. I think disabled people should get the same Cold weather payments as OAP's.How many of you have had your Direct Debits lowered because of the reduction in VAT?
It occured to me the other day that I hadn't received any correspondence or seen any reduction of VAT in my Direct Debits. Today I notice that two companies have done this with regard to my direct debits, but guess what the energy company which I use hasn't.
I just wonder how many of you have saved by the VAT reductions on your Direct Debits? How many of you are still paying your bills at the old rate of VAT.
You know i never even thought of that ....
I did notice with my mobile phone bill this month that they did advertise cheaper vat that was with the carphone warehouse .What can you do about climate change..?
There are many easy cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse emissions and save money as well:
• Switch over to energy-efficient light bulbs
• Use less heating in winter and simply wear a jumper
• Open windows in summer and only use less air conditioning on very hot days
• Use a clothes line for drying clothes and avoid using clothes dryers where possible
• Move to a smaller house or unit (inner city, high rise unit dwellers typically use far less energy)
• Pay bills and conduct business online as much as possible
• If your old hot water system feels warm to the touch, wrap it in a thermal blanket
• Say 'no' to plastic bags when shopping and take your own reusable ones
• Use natural composts in your garden - store-bought fertilizers release more greenhouse gases.
*Use Bicycle, not a car.
Anybody should do these things just to have less impact on the environment.
We need to add a few things though:
--Eat organic fresh unprocessed foods: they are more nutritious which means you can eat less to fulfill your needs, keep your body and mind in balance and end up requiring less medical attention.
--Eat mostly vegetables. Not only you lower your chances of cancer by avoiding too much meat and dairy, but vegetables are also easier to produce and if organically grown, benefit the environment.
--Buy quality items that you really need. They will last longer and will minimize the amount of attention you have to pay to them. They will also stop from using the dumpster as often.
--Buy only needed items made of sustainable materials. Avoid plastics in all forms as much as possible. Remember that plastic can seldom be recycled, only downcycled which means it will end up in the dumpster after a cycle or two.
--Avoid disposables at all costs. They may be convenient during the 5 minutes you use them, but they have too much impact before and after that. We all know we need to eat and drink every so often during the day, so carrying your own serviceware and reusable containers is very practical if you cannot cook your own food. You can also avoid food from coming in contact with aluminum and plastic (sp styrofoam and styrene forks, spoons and such) which means you decrease the amount of hormone disrupting and cancer causing chemicals that leak from plastic when in contact with greasy, sugary or acidic ingredients.Poll: which of the following would you be willing to do to prevent GLOBAL WARMING?
Energy is produced to generate electricity and to keep us warm. Most energy is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas, which release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Fuel burnt in our cars also releases carbon dioxide.
As an individual, you have little control on how your energy is produced. However, you can control the way in which you use that energy. Using less energy means less needs to be produced. Hence less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
There are a number of ways that you can help to save energy in your home:
Say no to plastic bottles, etc... as much as possible.
Air dry your clothes. I live in Mexico sometimes, and yes it does not hurt to do this!
Turn off lights and appliances when they are not needed;
Re-insulate your walls and lofts, or eventually pay someone to do this.
Have a shower instead of a bath;
Fit double glazing;
Turn your heating down. (Turning it down by 1°C saves 10% on energy bills.)
Are you willing to advertize or find at least 2 other people to carpool with for the next 5 to 10 years? Yea or ne?
Eventually..... I know this is hard but eventually Buy a Hybrid Car
The average driver could save 16,000 lbs. of CO2 and $3,750 per year driving a hybrid
At present in the UK we produce 16 million tonnes of household rubbish a year. 90% of this waste is dumped into landfill sites. Landfill waste produces the second most important greenhouse gas, which is methane. If we can recycle more of this waste, the need to mine raw materials will decrease and less waste will need to be buried as landfill.
Road transport is the fastest growing sector in the UK. A quarter of carbon dioxide emissions comes from road transport. By using public transport, and by cycling and walking more, we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released by our cars.
turn off ur mobile charger and not in use.
keep ur inbox wit just imp mails and keep deleting useless one...having too many mails also leads warming so start from nowWater, Gas and Electric, how much is your bill? Beating the credit crunch!?
Hi guys, my husband and I have done a major budget to try and cut down on things we don't use or need, starting with SKY TV, food expenses, phone bill, gym and so on. So far we have made a saving of £170 by cutting all these things, I can still run every morning for free, and we watch TV online anyway (BBC iplayer) - technically the licence people said we don't need a licence for playback programmes only live ones, so that's a £11 per month saving.
What about water, electric and gas? We're with EDF energy for electricity and gas, thames water for water - what do you pay. We live in a 2 bed 2 bath apartment, with no kids and we're hardly ever here, usually evenings from around 8 ish on average mon - fri and home at weekends sometimes.
We have a dishwasher which we run once a day and do washing about 2 - 3 times weekly. We shower daily at least once, at the most twice. I remember paying £16 at one point staying in a one bed flat and moved to a 3 bed house and paid £25 for water. Why the difference? We're still the same people using the same appliances. What do others pay, and should I be calling thames water? Apparently it's metred and we pay £28 per month!
How about gas and electricity what do you pay? I am using candles in the evening, all plugs off, more blankets and hot water bottles and jumpers I want to see how much we'll save.
Thanks guys, it would be nice to hear from someone in the UK, especially those using thames water.
snap, same here in France for the water metered and i pre pay every month 37 euros ( around 28 pounds) 2 adults and a baby and wish i had a dishwasher but it's me that washes dishes and i have to do a washing at least 5 or 6 times a week. Saying that i'll probably end up having to pay more per month as they are awful good at coming round to read the meters and at the end of a certain period they can up your monthly payments to cover any excess in usage.When staying with someone you're renting from, do you share your food?
I'm not talking about renting from a friend - I mean, if you've made a contract to stay with someone you didn't already know previously...you are paying them rent. Sure, you get along because you kinda need to in order to live with someone, but they're just your live-in land-person, mostly.
How do you deal with the food aspect of living with someone? Do you each buy your own stuff, and share? Or are you both adamant that it's no-touchy for one another's stuff? How does that work? And how do you handle someone who's eating your food?
In my situation, I do not work - my land-lady does. Provided, at the beginning of my tenancy, we were splitting grocery bills (Totally not my idea!!!), but we stopped, finally, sometime later last year. But so I do not touch her food at all, but she's decided she's going to use some of my frozen peas for her dinner tonight. Again, remember, I do NOT have an income, at all, and she does. Also, just this past weekend I was made to throw away a bunch of my food - some I'd already previously spent the time and energy cooking - because she did not have the freezer fixed. She did not even pretend to be sorry for that, or grateful that I stayed home all day and night to take care of the defrosting food and water all over the wooden flooring. This happened Saturday, and I have yet to hear even a 'Thank you, idiot.', just nothing.
Admittedly, this would annoy me either way - I do NOT make money, or get any sort of benefits, and she works...and spends her money on shoes and cd's and the like, but is eating MY food? Do you get what I'm saying? But so after this freezer business, she had her brother come over several hours after I'd contacted her to let her know that I was freaking out about the situation to pick up some things to hopefully save them, and while she's not apologised or thanked me, she had the nerve to have her mum pick up MY peas from her brother's place and drop them off at home for HER dinner, tonight.
Anyways, thoughts? What is your experience? Sorry about the slight-rambling. Just trying to get your take on this as I really need help with coping/dealing/etc, and I'd especially like to know if I'm taking this too seriously? I don't feel that I am. I've not worked since '06 and she knows that I am living off of my savings, which aren't worth boasting about at all. Most importantly, she knows that I am in constant worry about money.
Oh, and also, I do not drive. I do have a license but I just...don't have enough experience and such. I've no real intention of changing that any time soon. So this means that if I need to go grocery shopping I walk more than 4 miles (Think it's miles, anyway.) there and back to save money...or sometimes if I've got too much in my hands or it's raining a lot, I'll get on the bus on my way back home. She has a car - she can go wherever she likes, whenever she wants. She also knows this.
You really need to take control of your life. Get a job and start driving for one thing, then find a place you can afford to live by yourself. Stressing this much over a bag of frozen peas is ridiculous.Why do we allow politicians to dictate so much regarding the way we live?
I have long believed the chronic problem with the developed world is the tax burden ordinary people bear so an ever growing state can exist.
Don't people realise it's possible to live on VERY little and if the transactions you make don't involve money, it's hard for anyone else to get "a piece of the action"? Not everyone can get their water from a well like me and we need utilities but why do we need to pay VAT on our gas, electricity and water bills?
People spend money to join a gym so they can ride a fake cycle inside without actually moving. Why not ride a real bike for free to the shops in the open air instead and actually achieve something for free for your time and energy? If we learn to live on very little, we complete fewer transactions and starve our governments of the funds they need to live in the style to which they have become accustomed.
Most of the things that make us ill are expensive and hard to produce at home. Sweets, alcohol and tobacco would become expensive luxuries we'd learn to live without and we'd be healthier as a result. I never bothered getting my van and car fixed and find I bike to the shops and post office once a week for milk, yeast, sugar, flour, salt, fruit, salad, veg, herbs and spices (that I can't grow myself). For protein, I have my own hens and trout in the lake over the road, I have beans and lentils sprouting on my windowsill alongside lettuce. If you want plants in your house, grow ones you can eat.
Drug companies would shelve R&D into diseases that went away of their own accord, dentists and doctors would have no rotting teeth or furred up arteries to diagnose.
If you want small government, reduce your own mini economy, slow down, work as much as you need to live a simple, frugal life, get rid of addictions to anything bad for you that needs funding with hard work because of the taxes imposed by government. Just think what kind of a life you could have if you were fitter, had a more clear head and had more time?
We can barter between ourselves. No permits needed, no VAT on food (as there is in many "developed" countries") ..... if WE downsize, how the hell will our governments live off the meagre amount of money they get from us? Let the doctors fight over the few people rich and stupid enough to insist on making themselves ill.
I know some people will reply to this saying the national health services will fall apart and doctors will go out of business but I believe a lot of illnesses are self inflicted by the lifestyles many people choose to adopt and doctors made a living long before the national health service was formed.
We'd need to ensure sanitation and the water supply stayed intact as well as other utilities. I'm fascinated by the recent history in Japan when the Japanese just saved and saved and spent next to nothing. The government there I think had a minus interest rate (in that they would pay you to borrow money to start a business or build / buy something)
We are the goose that...Yes indeed, you have the answer that collective organisation could shed us of this mad lifestyle that has grown since the second world war. When I look around me at what we are eating, how we are encouraged to spend our spare-time, what we are being told on the television, etc., I wonder at this false 'bubble' that we are living in - and what we should do if it burst.
Have you ever wondered exactly why our society is so far removed from our healthier, better-fed and in fact, better-educated grandparents?? Never before in the history of mankind have the working classes been treated by the rich to such luxurious lifestyles as we can see today. This Generation 'X' has been offered a great party on a plate with free credit (alongside spoiling parents) and become mesmerised by the whirlwind of Consumerism. Any talk of being 'frugal' is scoffed at as old-fashioned - and Heaven forbid anything OLD. Everything has to be new and shiny like the celebrities. This brain-washing is why collective organisation is so difficult - people have been made excessively selfish, narcissistic and worse, slowly dumbed-down by increasingly childish television. Even our language is being changed. We have been completely duped into a kind of madness where we believe that there is no tomorrow and all these excesses will just go on and on... watching reality in a tv show rather than examining our own lives. This false reality is so fast that people give less and less thought to matters until serious thinking itself is lost completely.
Meanwhile, what are the rich doing while our backs are turned?? Apart from getting the Lisbon Treaty pushed through... I have an inkling and that terrifies me more than anything. George Orwell, Arthur Koestler and all the rest who have tried to warn us would be banging their heads in despair. And so am I.