Energy Efficiency: A Special Report
The first of our special reports looked at rising energy prices and their impact on UK consumers. We're going to leave that report online and freely available, so please do feel free to browse through the key points at your leisure.
Indeed, you may wish to print off a copy of the report. In particular, we focused on the likely response of the regulatory authorities, while also considering your options if you're looking to keep your bills as low as possible.
When looking at the issues concerning comparing prices, we noted that it can sometimes seem difficult to feel that you're really in control of many of these issues. Unless you regard yourself as something of an energy expert, it's certainly now easy to get all of the decisions right.
That's why we concluded by turning our attention to energy efficiency. This second report deals with energy efficiency in considerably more detail, examining the practical steps that you might take to discover how you can reduce (or at least restrict) your bills.
Why does energy efficiency matter?
There are many in the environmental movement who would suggest that energy efficiency is important because it's all about using less resources. They see this as being particularly important when dealing with oil, gas and coal.
We know that burning some of these energy sources can lead to environmental damage. We also know that they represent finite sources of energy.
The move towards renewable alternatives (such as wind farms, solar energy and the use of tidal energy) is all about ensuring that we have energy availability for the long-term, while ensuring that we restrict the amount of damage that we do to the wider environment.
But what about costs? Some critics suggest that renewables involve spending more money. When faced with already rising energy bills, this may seem like the last thing that you want. So why should energy efficiency matter to you?
Looking at the situation here in the UK, we can soon see why it should be important. Since most of us either use a metered source of energy (such as a mains electricity supply), or buy a source of fuel in batches (such as oil, coal, or logs for a fire), we pay more money when we use more energy.
If we can reduce the energy that we use, we can reduce our fuel bills. It really is that simple!
Heat your home more cheaply
So how can you make practical changes around your home. Firstly, it's useful to know how much you're currently spending on your energy bills. If you can dig out your bills from the past year or so, then this could be an excellent starting point.
We're also strongly in favour of simple (and safe!) experiments. These can be incredibly revealing. There are, for instance, gadgets that can be used to tell you exactly how much electricity is being used within your home at any point in time. This is certainly useful if you make use of any sort of electric heating - indeed, it can offer a revealing picture of your electricity use as a whole.
What about for those of us making use of gas central heating? You may well have access to a meter cupboard, enabling you to see how much gas is being used each day. Why not see how much has you're currently using within a typical 24 hour period.
Now have a think about how you can reduce your usage. If you've become used to monitoring your usage closely, it should be relatively easy to see the impact of any changes that you make.
As a starting point, you might like to turn the main, central thermostat down. If you have a gas central heating system, you're likely to have one of these in an obvious location within the home. Initially, you may need to adjust to the fact that you're home doesn't feel quite as warm as it did. But you may soon get used to a slight change in temperature. An extra layer of clothing may well help!
A slight change in the thermostat setting can make a big difference.
For your next step, take a look at any individual thermostats. These are typically found on radiatiors within the home. Could you turn these down by a notch or two? If you have rooms that aren't used regularly (such as a guest bedroom), you might even consider lowering them further (or even turning them off when the room's not in use).
How about the positioning of your radiators or fires? Are you getting the maximum benefit from the heat output? If they're hidden behind pieces of furniture, you may find that the furniture is being heated, rather than the room!
If you're going on holiday, don't forget to alter your heating settings to take account of your absence. These simple changes can help you to make big savings.
