How to cut utility bills

How to cut utility bills
Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/153d4dfc-ac84-11e0-bac9-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1RwnBURPp

A big shake up in the way that the UK sources its energy is coming, with plans to reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels estimated to cost ￡200bn by 2020. This could lead to even higher domestic bills.

Chris Huhne, energy secretary, will announce the changes on Tuesday, and has tried to play down concerns that households are going to stump up the cost of the project.

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/153d4dfc-ac84-11e0-bac9-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1RwnCTsxB

But regardless of the future possible price rises, British Gas and Scottish Power have already announced a price hike for this August, which they blame on rising wholesale energy prices, and the rest of the Big Six gas and electricity suppliers are expected to do the same soon.

It seems timely, therefore, to have a quick check of the advice that’s out there from providers, comparison sites and the government, about ways to keep household energy bills down.

One of the clearest I found was from comparison site Energy Choices, which gives a list of ways to cut bills. If you just ignore the corporate plug that makes up the final point (and which I’m going to politely ignore) these are all sensible and focus largely on household habits:

1. Switch suppliers 2. Look after your boiler 3. Insulate your home 4. Turn down the temperature 5. Energy saving light bulbs 6. Change your habits 7. Watch water usage 8. Change your appliances 9. Insure your boiler.

Moneyextra.com has a short but sweet guide that concentrates on ways to save money by getting the best price from your existing supplier:

1. Combine gas and electric bills (these are typically cheaper together than separately)

2. Select paperless billing (many utility providers give reductions for online billing)

3. Where possible pay by direct debit (this will grant you access to better premiums)

4. Read the literature that your supplier will send you with regards to saving costs (insulating your house, etc.)

5. Switch to a fixed-rate tariff to protect from further price increases.

All pretty good - though the point about reading your energy supplier’s literature might not be the most blindingly helpful.

It is certainly true that combining bills can knock off pounds from the average annual bill.

Which? has a good bit of information on buying energy saving devices and points out that moving to the cheapest tariff (currently EDF’s online tariff) can save up to ￡270. It also advocates low energy lightbulbs (which last 10 years and can knock ￡11 off annual bills), unplugging chargers when they’re not in use and making sure that appliances are never left on standby.

... of course knocking off a few units of use won’t make any difference to bills unless you have installed a meter that takes a reading of your use and bills you accordingly.

The Energy Saving Trust is advises taking regular meter readings and considering generating your own power as well as recycling and reusing in order to cut energy use.

And if you don’t mind being told by the company that’s going to add ￡200 to your annual bill how you should be cutting costs then British Gas suggests not putting on half loads of washing. It also has details of the offer of free insulation fitting.

Finally the government’s advice site has some advice that feels like the tips your mother would give you and which would be very simple to implement including not putting hot food in fridges and freezers (it makes them work harder to cool the food down and that drains more power) and turning down thermostats (which could save about ￡50 a year)