When you live in a rented home, the monthly bills are nearly always consistent. The rent will be a set fee every month, along with council tax, water bills, electricity, pay TV and the internet. When you receive these bills, you will probably think, that as a tenant, you can't do too much to reduce them. But following some easy tips will allow you to cut nearly all your bills.
The cheapest ways to reduce your bills
1) Turning your thermostat down by 1 degree is the first piece of advice everyone will give you. It suddenly becomes less annoying when you find out you could save up to £60 a year.
2) If turning down by 1 degree could save you £60, imagine what the savings you could make by delaying turning the heating on for a week or more. Instead of putting the heating on, put on a jumper or some thick socks to keep the cold out.
3) Showers use less water than baths and will therefore save you money, but power showers can quickly use more than a bath-full. Turning the pressure down slightly on a power shower, will allow you to enjoy the power shower and still reduce your water bills.
4) Pre-heating the oven is a huge waste of electricity, therefore to do so everyday is not the most efficient way to cook. Instead, it is far cheaper to cook a couple of meals at the same time and just reheat before serving.
5) Just like boiling a kettle, you should limit the amount of water you use when boiling food. Using a smaller pan will increase the efficiency of your cooking.
6) Wash your clothes at 30-40°C to save your washing machine from having to heat the water too high. This could cut your energy usage in half and speed up the washing process.
7) Stop using the tumble-dryer. Hang your clothes up and let them air-dry over night. The ...
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...cheap and temporary method to stop the heat escaping up the chimney and the cold descending down into your home.
16) Ensure that your water tank and the pipes are all sufficiently insulated. Adding extra insulation will keep the water hotter for longer and reduce the amount of time the boiler is on.
Spending a lot to save a lot more
17) Whilst this may seem a step too far for a tenant to worry about, insulating the loft is one of the best ways to keep a house warm and reduce the heating bill. To insulate the average loft will cost around £150, much more than any other tip we have given. However, loft insulation could save you around £130 a year, so if you are planning to be in the house for longer than a year, it is going to save you money.
Following any or all of these tips could easily reduce your energy bills with just some small changes in your daily habits.
appropriately and efficiently. Studies have shown that this canlead to reductions of 10 to 15 percent in annual energy bills.
...also save energy by using motion censoring for doors and sinks. The dining rooms and foyers should have dim-able light switches. Another way to save a lot of energy is to make a master switch at the front door that turns off all lights. That way you never leave a light on when you aren't at home. You should use natural gas cook tops and ovens to cut down on electricity.
Avoid using the stove or oven to cook - it will make you and your house hotter.
So you turn off lights when you leave a room, use CFL light bulbs throughout the house instead of incandescent, and keep the temperature indoors a little cooler in winter and higher in summer. Wondering why your energy bills remain so high? The answer might be flying out your windows and walls without you realizing it. According to the Department of Energy, a professional energy audit can identify exactly where your energy dollars are used -- and easily help the average homeowner save anywhere from 5 to 30 percent on utility bills. Even a preliminary DIY energy audit, focusing on two key areas, will assist you in significantly cutting back on your normal energy usage.
Another resource we use to save electricity is simply turn off the lights when you are not using them, which is a huge rule we have to follow in my house and it really does help a lot for something so simple. Another method we use more natural lighting. We try to keep the curtains and blinds open. Letting your house flood with natural light instead can lead to big electricity savings. Unless we need strong, focused light to complete a particular task, we try leaving the lights off during the day and embracing the sun's rays in the rooms you're using. Next Is. The Use candles instead of electric lights a few times a week. We don't wait until a summer thunderstorm knocks out the power to break out the candles. We try to Choose a night or two a week to leave the lights off and light your family's way with sturdy, slow burning candles that cast a fair amount of light. We also try our hardest to reduce waste by doing very simple things that don't affect our everyday life not even by a bit such as, Use cloth bags instead of plastic, we don't use bottled drinks, Reduce your paper usage by simply using email and finally Reusing and Recycling. I’ve only given you some examples we use in my household to help reduce waste and we always strive to
Therefore, Canadian households are able to use programmable thermostats to set and control different temperatures at different times to avoid wasteful energy when not required to set the temperature high or low. From this strategy, Canadians can decrease their carbon footprint with ease from household energy by switching to a more energy efficient Programmable thermostat. Finally, in addition to saving and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable energy for home energy are also efficient to prevent from non renewable sources such as coal, and fossil fuels as a report by the Renewable Energy Focus states that Renewable energy is able to reduce 20% of world goals for Greenhouse gas emissions(Renewable
... reduce natural gas consumption. Long-term I am committed to installing new energy efficient windows to truly reduce energy consumption. To help reduce the family’s water consumption we recently installed an energy efficient washing machine that uses over 60% less water than the previous model that was installed. As an additional means in which to help conserve water I will be installing a rain barrel in the summer to water our outdoor plants. While these actions might not seem significant, they can make a significant difference. According to Energy Star, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an Energy Star qualified CFL, in just one year it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes. That would prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of about 800,000 cars.
For example, evaporative cooling can be used to cool greenhouses in regions of the world with high temperatures and low humidity. Evaporative cooling utilizes the heat of the greenhouse air to evaporate water from plants and other wet surfaces, cooling the greenhouse between 10 and 20 degrees below the outside temperature (Bartok, “Ventilation for Greenhouses”) As water evaporates from surfaces in the greenhouse it draws heat along with it and allows the air to be cooled. This method of cooling is energy efficient and thus is much more economical than other cooling options. In addition, insulation is used in greenhouses located in climates with lower average temperatures. Insulation is used as a barrier between the colder outside air and the warmer internal air. During winter months, there is not always enough light to warm a greenhouse to an acceptable temperature, so greenhouse operators use heaters to warm their greenhouse. However, many greenhouses have to be insulated by energy screens that “can provide 30 to 50% savings in heating costs” (Bartok, "Energy and Shade Screen”) Often referred to as energy blankets, they save energy by reducing the amount of the greenhouse that is exposed to the outside air and trapping the warm air on the inside of the screen. Whether a greenhouse needs to be cooled or heated, different technologies and techniques can be used to maintain a constant
There are different types of Loft insulation that are used for different purposes. For instance, using Natural Sheep’s Wool is a good choice as it’s naturally fire retardant and produces no toxic gasses. Also, if bought correctly includes rat repellent. The next type of Loft Insulation is Dry Cellulose. Dry Cellulose is essentially recycled paper that has a mineral salt fire retardant and mold preventor sprayed on it. The most popular and efficient solution is Fiberglass insulation. It is fire retardant by nature. Fiberglass is easy to install and relatively inexpensive. In general, Loft insulation can save you up to £200 and 230kg of CO² per year!
People are always looking for ways to save money. By using “Green” computer components you can save money and energy. Everyone having a computer powered on days at a time can use up a lot of energy, which will lead to a large energy bill. There is a lot of different ways to adapt your computer to be more energy efficient. Using more energy efficient computer components and changing settings in your operating system will save you big. By purchasing more energy efficient components such as processors, hard drives and computer monitors you can make your computer consume less power thus saving energy.
Polar Spray Foam Insulation is a solution that can bring in large savings for you every month:
Sometimes we have clothes or other objects that may not last very long due to incorrect preserving. Overtime our clothing items tend to look different and react different. What we don’t know is that there are many ways to take care of our textiles so that it will last us a long amount of time and not give up on us so soon. Majority of factors that affect the preservation of our clothing are the environment, light, or even certain temperatures that we place them in. When preserving our fabrics and textiles, we should all consider learning how to display or store them correctly, clean them properly, and handle them with great care. When we do not pay much attention to these factors, they can affect the condition of our fabric, resulting in having to care for them even more.
Washing machines have become the most popular mechanical device throughout all modern times. “For thousands of years, one of the most tiresome household tasks was the washing of clothes and lines” (Field Enterprises Educational Corporation 45 ). Washing machines are greatly needed in everyday life. Much labor and has been relieved due to the wonderful invention of the washing machine. The washing machine is also a major time saver. Washing machines have developed proficiently throughout all the years and are still developing day by day. From the wash board to the electric washing machine, laundry has truly been transformed in America, as a result, cleaning laundry is nearly effortless.
"Water Heaters Decrease Your Expenses and Increase Satisfaction.Energytrust.org. Energy Trust of Oregon, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
Household energy conservation is a very practical and realistic approach to conserving energy within our society. US households consume a tremendous amount of natural gas as well as electric energy. It has been calculated that the amount of energy consumed within the US increased exponentially from about 1850 to 1975. If energy continued to increase at this rate, we would be experiencing severe energy shortages in our current society. Luckily, steps towards conservation, including various energy regulations, have curbed that growth somewhat, brining the predicted 160 Qbtu/yr for the year 2000 down to around 93.8 Qbtu/yr by the year 1996. However, household energy usage is still a major issue as households consume about 38% of the total consumed energy and contribute greatly to natural gas consumption and issues such as global warming. Therefore, it is important that people understand how we use energy in the household and what steps can be taken to conserve that energy.