This week (16th-21st January 2012) it’s Big Energy Week. Southern Electric have joined forces with Citizens Advice, Consumer Groups, Charities, Switching Sites, Offgem and the Government in a bid to not only save energy but to also save us money. Their website is fit to bursting with practical advice, handy hints and tips as well as a low cost iPlan tariff and an Energy Efficency survey.
The iPlan tariff provides you with a free smart energy saving kit which includes an energy usage gadget called the Onzo Display which enables you to track your energy usage and with it’s online account see just how much energy you use and how you could change things to cut costs and save energy. There is a really cool feature called “Max Alert” which will show you that more electricity is being used than normal so if you are anything like me and forget to turn lights, PC’s, TV’s etc off then the Onzo Display will warn you that you could be wasting energy and money.
The Energy Efficiency Survey is a short, five step survey that gives your home an energy efficiency rating and suggests things that could be changed to help save money. I took the survey on our house and came out with C as the energy efficiency rating.
Along with the rating, CO2 emissions report and an approximate running cost it also gave me information on how I could lower them. By upgrading our wall insulation and our roof insulation we would be saving approximately £43 and our Co2 emissions would decrease to 2.7 tonnes per year. Our rating would stay at C but I think overall that’s a pretty good rating to have anyway. There were also basic tips on saving energy like changing all the light bulbs to energy saving ones, making sure the heating is set at a certain temperature, buying A rated appliances and replacing the boiler with an A rated one. Apparently something as simple as a boiler upgrade could save over £200 a year!
As well as these tips Southern Electric also have a whole library on their website. dedicated to saving energy and money. Some of my favourite are:
“You won’t have to iron everything if you don’t turn up the tumble dryer thermostat too high or dry your clothes for too long.” <- I detest Ironing!
“Your TV, DVD and Hi-Fi use energy when not in use – up to 90% in standby mode.” <- Our TV doesn’t have an off switch so lives in Standby Mode!
“You can enjoy the feel of a power shower but cut the cost considerably by fitting a ‘low flow shower head’. This mixes air with water, to give you the feel of an invigorating shower but reduces the amount of water by up to 70%”
With our energy provider trying to up our monthly direct debit to £250 a month I will definately be using Big Energy Week and all the practical advice from Southern Electric to try and cut my energy usage and costs.
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