6 Easy Ways To Save On Gas and Electric Bills​

Switching your energy supplier is often called out as a smart way to bring your bills down – and there’s a good reason for that. Sticking blindly with the same company without shopping around for better deals is a short-cut to overpaying for your energy. For one thing, if you’re on a limited-term fixed tariff and that term runs out, you could easily find yourself shunted into a much more expensive variable rate automatically. That’s a trap loads of people fall into without ever realising.

Shopping around’s a good idea before making any big decision. When you open a new bank account, for instance, you could grab all kinds of bonuses for signing up, from cashback to special savings rates. With your gas and electricity suppliers, though, it’s worth understanding the way the system works before making your mind up.

When Ofgem, the UK’s energy regulator, bumped up the maximum rate companies could charge you, suppliers basically fell over themselves to raise their rates as much as they legally could. This meant that, for people whose fixed rates were expiring, Ofgem’s price cap was the cheapest rate they could shift onto wherever they looked. Overall, average UK households found themselves looking at bills of £1,277 per year (or £1,309 for those on pre-payment deals).

So by all means, hunt around to see what deals are on offer. Just keep in mind that locking in a fixed rate doesn’t always do as much as you’d hope to save cash when energy prices start soaring across the board. You’ve got to make some changes of your own to make the most of your money – and that starts with understanding how much energy you’re actually using...

Smart meters are pretty common these days, and they’re actually really useful. That little monitor sitting on your windowsill is constantly talking to your meters to track all the energy (and cash) you’re burning through and reporting it back to you. That’s incredibly handy information to have on tap when you’re trying to cut down on waste.

For one thing, that constant reminder of what your energy’s costing you is just the boot up the proverbials that most of us need to do simple, easily forgotten things like switch off unneeded lights.

It gets better. Getting a smart meter fitted can actually unlock better rates and plans from your energy suppliers. Getting detailed, more-or-less real time information on your energy use allows companies to customise your deal to offer cheaper rates at different times of day, like “off peak” periods when there’s less overall demand. With less “pressure” on the grid, it gets cheaper for businesses to supply your energy. That means they can “reward” you for using energy in those cheaper periods with a break on your rate. Armed with that information, you can then plan out your energy use to make the most of the cheaper times – like running your washing machine overnight, for instance.

In fact, smart meters are such a win/win proposition for you and your supplier that most companies will install one in your home for free! If you’re renting, you don’t technically even need permission from your landlord to get one, as long as the bills are in your name and you’re paying them yourself. That said, it’s probably still a good move to talk it over with them first, if only for the sake of a quiet life.

Naturally, what you stand to save by taking control of your energy use depends very much on what you do with the information. Smartening up your meter could easily mean you save an average of over £21 a year off your bills, though.

Do smart meters really save you money?

Smart meters are pretty common these days, and they’re actually really useful. That little monitor sitting on your windowsill is constantly talking to your meters to track all the energy (and cash) you’re burning through and reporting it back to you. That’s incredibly handy information to have on tap when you’re trying to cut down on waste.

For one thing, that constant reminder of what your energy’s costing you is just the boot up the proverbials that most of us need to do simple, easily forgotten things like switch off unneeded lights.

It gets better. Getting a smart meter fitted can actually unlock better rates and plans from your energy suppliers. Getting detailed, more-or-less real time information on your energy use allows companies to customise your deal to offer cheaper rates at different times of day, like “off peak” periods when there’s less overall demand. With less “pressure” on the grid, it gets cheaper for businesses to supply your energy. That means they can “reward” you for using energy in those cheaper periods with a break on your rate. Armed with that information, you can then plan out your energy use to make the most of the cheaper times – like running your washing machine overnight, for instance.

In fact, smart meters are such a win/win proposition for you and your supplier that most companies will install one in your home for free! If you’re renting, you don’t technically even need permission from your landlord to get one, as long as the bills are in your name and you’re paying them yourself. That said, it’s probably still a good move to talk it over with them first, if only for the sake of a quiet life.

Naturally, what you stand to save by taking control of your energy use depends very much on what you do with the information. Smartening up your meter could easily mean you save an average of over £21 a year off your bills, though.

Do smart meters really save you money?

This is an easy one. LED bulbs are more energy efficient than standard ones, and can last for decades with careful use. More to the point, they can save you £7 a year off your electricity bill per bulb! That saving alone knocked one man’s lighting bill down by 90%.

You know what else? LED bulbs are actually quite cool, too. Depending on the kind you buy and how your home’s set up, you can get dimming features for romantic evenings and movie nights or programmable “wake up” and “sunset” features to ease you in and out of bed each day. You can even get colour-shifting bulbs that you control with your phone. Basically, if you haven’t already swapped out every light bulb in your home for an energy-saving LED one, you’re falling behind the times.

It’s easy to get set in your ways, particularly with things you rarely even think about. You already know what temperature you like your home to be, so you reach for the thermostat, set it and forget it. The thing is, if you’ve got all your radiators on full, you’re blowing through a lot of energy just to heat the rooms you’re hardly using. Consider turning a few of your radiator valves down – or even just shutting doors so you’re not spending needless money heating empty rooms.

While you’re at it, think about nudging your main thermostat down by just 1 degree. The chances are you won’t even notice the difference – at least until your energy bills arrive. Running your home 1 degree cooler could be worth an average of £55 a year off your energy budget.

Here's a few more bad habits to try break:

• Stop leaving your household appliances on standby all day and night. Boom – you just saved yourself £35 a year with zero effort!
• Stop running your dishwasher half-empty. Even if you end up only dropping the number of times you use the thing by 1 cycle per week, you just saved another £8 a year off your energy bills.
• Do the same thing with your washing machine. Always make sure it’s properly loaded before you set it off. Again, you’re saving another £8 per year just by running your washing machine once a week less.
• There really is no need to keep filling the kettle up to the maximum capacity line every time you boil it. All you’re doing is wasting energy. Only heat the amount of water you need for the job at hand. That alone will probably save you £6 a year. Just imagine what you’ll save by using the same trick when you run your bath.
• If there’s no one in the room, there’s no need to leave the lights on. Simply remembering to flip the switch when a room’s not in use can mean an extra £11 in saved cash over a year.

There’s a fair bit of confusion about whether or not rechargeable batteries actually save you money. For one thing, you’re going to use a fair amount of electricity charging them up back, rather than swapping them out for a fresh set of regular batteries. What it comes down to is whether the price of those new conventional cells ends up higher than powering up a set of rechargeables. The bottom line there is, if you pick the right battery brand, you’re better off recharging.

Rechargeable batteries last a lot longer than conventional ones. Good quality rechargeables can handle 200 or more charges, so you’d potentially have to replace normal ones hundreds of times to match up. Yes, you’re using electricity to top up your flat batteries, costing you some money. However, you stand to save a lot more by not having to buy a new single-use battery every time one goes flat.

Of course, money isn’t the only thing that disposable batteries waste. A battery is a difficult thing to get rid of safely. Doing it right means taking them to a household waste recycling centre, or a shop that’s set up to collect them. Switching to high-quality rechargeable batteries isn’t just a money saver; it’s also a good way to bring down your carbon footprint and waste output.

Most people never realise how much their old household appliances are costing them each year. Energy efficiency’s become a really big issue in recent times, and a typical home can be a minefield of “hidden costs” if you’ve got the wrong gear installed. Let’s take a look at some of the usual suspects, and what you can do to get them up to date. 

It's a great excuse to modernise your kitchen:

• Your old dishwasher might not be pulling its weight any more. If you’re still struggling along with a D-rated machine, trading up to a modern A+++ one could see you bagging an extra £47 a year in savings.
• The same thing goes for your washing machine. Swapping out your D-rated machine for an A+++ one could knock about £34 off your yearly energy bills.
• Even your freezer could be adding to the energy you’re wasting. Stepping up from a C-rated device to a super-efficient A+++ one could be worth a massive £113 a year in energy savings. You don’t even need to go that far to see the benefit. Just going from C to A++ could still land you an extra £26 a year.
• Here’s a nice little energy-saving dodge that most people don’t even know about. The head on your shower could be costing you a load of unnecessary money without you ever realising. It takes practically no effort to switch to a more water-efficient model, and the savings are pretty surprising. Overall, you stand to shave £30 off your yearly gas bill this way, along with saving a whopping £45 in water!

It doesn’t have to take a huge effort to save money on your gas and electricity bills. The important thing to realise is that you’ve got a lot more control than you think. Even when energy prices are skyrocketing, a couple of smart decisions at your end can keep things from going off the rails. Sometimes that’s going to mean making changes, like switching energy suppliers, tariff deals – or even just the brand of batteries you’re buying. It’ll all be worth it when the bills roll in, though.

Take stock of what you’re doing right, and look for ways to do even better. The chances are, it’ll take a spot of trial-and-error when tweaking your thermostat and radiators before you find the right balance between comfort and cost. Keep searching for the sweet spot and you’ll be surprised how much you end up saving. Don’t be afraid to experiment - and consider whether slipping on a jumper might be better than bumping up the heating for the whole house.

The important point is that most of the real decisions are in your hands, not your energy supplier’s. Take responsibility for cutting down the waste, take control of the cash you save and take pride in making the right choices for your wallet, your family and the environment.

Keep checking back here for more tips and updates. We’re experts at saving you money and we’re always here to help. That’s why you’re better off with RIFT.