GOT a quiet weekend? Some DIY jobs will fix your finances as well as your home.
Taking these simple steps will protect you from bigger energy bills.
It comes as the energy price cap is expected to rise by around £100 next spring.
Bills already rose by 2% – or £35 – for the typical household to £1,755 on October 1.
Detect draughts – £145
Draught proofing around windows, floors, and doors could save you around £85 a year.
Adding a special draught excluder to your chimney, costing from £25 initially, can save another £60.
read more on energy saving
Environmental scientist Angela Terry says: “Wet the back of your hand on a windy day and go around your windows and doors.
“You can’t see the breeze, but you’ll feel it – that’s how you’ll know where you need to put draught-proofing tape or strips.”
Stick-on draught-proofing tape starts from £3.99 at B&Q or get screw-in excluders for around £9.
A squashed towel is a cheap and easy way to stop under-door draughts.
Insulate lofts – up to £230
A quarter of heat is lost through the roof in an uninsulated home.
Putting insulation into a semi-detached house that has none can save £230 on energy bills.
Even if you already have insulation, adding an extra layer to take it up to 27 to 30cm thick will cut your bills by up to £35 a year for a detached house.
You can do it in a rented home too.
Phil Steele, future technologies evangelist at Octopus Energy, says: “While you’re in the loft, you’ll probably find gaps where moving stuff around has dragged the insulation about, so fill that in.
“Just be mindful of leaving ventilation, which the roof needs, in the eves at the sides of the loft.”
BEAT YOUR BILLS
WE know many were concerned about soaring energy costs BEFORE temperatures plummeted this year.
A new Sun poll of readers found 85 per cent of you are worrying about energy bills this winter.
The Sun has teamed up with Octopus Energy to bring you our ‘Beat Your Bills’ series offering expert tips and advice on the simple measures you can take to keep costs to a minimum.
Our bill-busting series includes simple, cheap DIY tricks and easy swaps to save cash, plus advice if you’re struggling.
Octopus are also giving away an incredible Geely EX5 Max electric car.
Collect codes or download the Sun Savers app or sign up at sunsavers.co.uk for a chance to win.
You can buy insulation from DIY stores for around £25.
Find full instructions in the ideas section at diy.com.
Dress windows – £140
Draughty windows are one of the main heat loss culprits, especially if they’re single-glazed.
You can waste around £140 a year on your energy bills by having single glazed panes rather than A-rated double glazing.
Once you’ve filled chilly gaps, add an extra layer of protection using secondary glazing film.
Angela says: “It’s so cheap and it’s magical. If you’re a tenant, it comes off easily at the end of winter.”
B&Q has a kit for £6.99.
Curtains are also crucial.
Using heavy drapes, especially with a thermal lining, can cut heat loss by up to 60%.
Find a cheap pair in a charity shop or look on a site like Freecycle. We spotted long thermal curtains that sold for £15 on eBay.
Another trick is to buy thermal linings that you can attach onto your existing curtains, from £12 at Argos.
Close the curtains as soon as it gets dark and open during the day to let warm sunlight in.
Phil says: “Don’t block radiators. When a radiator is placed under a window then a long curtain over it is just ideal for funnelling the heat out through the window.”
Don’t forget to cover your front door too.
Dunelm sells a long chenille eyelet door curtain for £25 or you can find one second-hand.
Plug water waste – £50
The less water you use, the less your boiler will have to work hard to heat it, giving you the double whammy of saving on your water and energy bills at the same time.
Cutting showers and baths will help cut your bills, so your first job is to download a four-minute ‘shower songs’ playlist, to remind you to turn off the taps as The Final Countdown or Material Girl reaches the final note.
By swapping from an eight-minute shower, a couple living in Great Britain in a semi-detached home, could save £50 a year on energy bills and around £60 a year on water bills.
Fitting a water-efficient shower head, from around £10 at Screwfix, could save you a similar amount.
Add tap aerators to your kitchen and bathroom, from £6.99 at B&Q, and you can easily cut the water flow without even noticing.
Could new time-of-use tariff save you cash?
By Harriet Cooke
FAMILIES can save £200 a year or more by using energy at certain times of the day, thanks to a new range of tariffs designed to spread demand.
“Time-of-use” tariffs are becoming increasingly popular due to more families owning electric cars, which can be charged more cheaply overnight.
But other households without EVs can also benefit.
WHAT IS A TIME-OF-USE TARIFF?
ECONOMY 7 tariffs were the first of their kind, introduced in 1978 to encourage people with night storage heaters to use more energy overnight.
These days people are moving away from Economy 7 in favour of time-of-use tariffs which operate through smart meters.
Many are aimed at people who have electric cars to charge, although
suppliers are now developing time-specific tariffs and incentives that everyone can benefit from.
With the innovative Agile Octopus tariff, rates are based on the wholesale price of electricity and are priced per half-hour.
Customers can check half-hourly rates for the next day through the website or app, and plan when to use the cheapest energy.
When there is more green energy on the grid, wholesale prices can drop dramatically and even “go negative” – meaning Agile customers actually get paid to use energy.
Agile customers saved an average of £268 over the past year, compared to those on the Octopus standard variable tariff.
DO ALL SUPPLIERS OFFER THIS?
E.ON Next offers the UK’s first fixed time-of-use tariff – called the “Next Smart Saver” – to get people to shift their energy use away from peak times.
The 12-month tariff has three different rates: off-peak (5am-4pm and 7pm-2am), super off-peak (2am-5am) and peak (4pm-7pm).
The off-peak rate is 21.97p per kWh, super off-peak is 16.34p per kWh
and peak is 39.99p per kWh.
E.on said customers had already saved a combined £135,000 on the tariff.
British Gas and Samsung are teaming up for the new Samsung Weekend Saver Fix tariff.
It offers owners of eligible Samsung appliances, such as washing machines, half-price electricity use on Saturdays from 11am to 4pm.
IS IT RIGHT FOR YOU?
IF you use most of your electricity at peak times, such as late afternoon or early evening, time-of-use won’t be right for you because you’ll be paying a higher rate compared to a standard tariff.
So with the E.on Next Smart Saver tariff mentioned above, using a tumble dryer for 30 minutes at 5pm would cost 40p, compared to 22p at 7am.
Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at uswitch.com, said: “If you’re on one of these tariffs, be sure everyone in your home knows what times are cheaper and when it’s more expensive, as getting it wrong can add up.”
WHAT ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLE TARIFFS?
INTELLIGENT Octopus Go is a smart electric vehicle tariff that automatically charges your car when energy is cheapest, for 7p per kWh.
You just need to set the time you want your car charged by and how much power you need.
If you need it charged quickly in the daytime you pay a higher rate of 29p per kWh.
Customers also get an additional six hours of cheap 7p-per-kWh electricity overnight – a good time for running the dishwasher and charging devices.
Using a washing machine for 30 minutes would cost 30p during the day, but just 7.5p at night.
It costs from £899 to install the EV charger with Octopus, but the supplier says customers can typically save £444 a year.
Most suppliers have special EV tariffs, and if you have an electric car they are definitely worth considering
It could cut the amount flowing through that tap by between 20 and 80%.
Scrub up savings
Sprucing up your electrical appliances means they won’t have to work as hard, which will save you money.
Dust the fridge and freezer coils once a year so it’s not having to work as hard.
Pull out the appliance, unplug it, and gently clean the coils.
Check the door seals aren’t damaged.
Defrost the freezer at least once a year as a build-up of ice forces your appliance to do more, adding to your energy bills.
Clean the lint filter on a tumble dryer every time you use it.
A clogged filter can be dangerous and will stop the air circulating properly, leaving the appliance running for longer.
Simply descaling the kettle will boost efficiency. Use equal parts water and white vinegar, boil it, then rinse thoroughly.
Scrub your oven – baked-on food and grease means your oven will have to work harder to heat up.
Bleed radiators – up to £350
Over time, tiny leaks or the process of evaporation may mean the water in some radiators is replaced by air, which means they don’t heat up properly.
Naomi Hills, a heating engineer with Octopus Energy, says: “When your heating is on, feel from the bottom of your radiator upwards. If it is hot at the bottom and cooler at the top, it needs bleeding.”
To bleed it, you need to have pressure in your system.
Naomi suggests looking at the display on your boiler to check you have around 1-1.2 bar of pressure.
If the pressure is too low, look at your boiler instructions for details of how to increase it.
To bleed the radiators, turn the heating off and start with the ones that need bleeding downstairs first before moving upstairs.
You need a radiator key, around £1 from a homeware store, and an old rag.
Naomi, who’s worked as a plumber for 30 years, says: “Find the vent, which has ridges, on one side of the radiator.
“Cup your rag or cloth just underneath, then put the key in and turn it to the left by a quarter of a turn to loosen the vent.
“Whatever you do, don’t remove the vent completely.
“You may hear a hissing sound as the air is released. Then, as soon as the water gets to the top it will drip out of the vent.
“That’s when you close it off again, gently, just until the water stops.”
If water comes out straight away when you open the vent, then you don’t have air in the radiator and it doesn’t need bleeding.
As you go around different radiators, the pressure on your boiler may fall, so keep checking as you go along.
Naomi also suggests changing the flow temperature of your boiler to save money.
There’s details on how to do this safely at octopus.energy/blog/winter-workout-gas-saving-tips/.
Detecting leaks could also be a big money-saver – though you may have to get a plumber in to fix any problems.
If you have a water meter, turn off the heating and make sure no taps are running, then check to see if the meter is still running. If it is, that suggests a leak.
Help to improve your home
You can get money to make home improvements that will cut your bills.
The Energy Company Obligation scheme (ECO4) is open to low-income households.
Backed by the Government and funded by energy companies, it includes grants for loft, wall and floor insulation, boiler upgrades and solar panels.
The Government’s Great British Insulation Scheme offers free or discounted insulation for homeowners, landlords or tenants.
You might get support if your home has an energy performance certificate (EPC) of D to G and is in Council Tax bands A-D in England or A-E in Scotland or Wales.
Also, check that you are getting all the help you’re entitled to with bills.
First ask your supplier about support including hardship funds.
Also contact turn2us.org.uk or contact your local Citizens Advice office at citizensadvice.org.uk to make sure you are receiving the correct benefits.
