How to cut your household bills
Have you noticed your household bills rising over lockdown with you and your family spending more time at home? Are you worried that extending your home is only going to add to those bills? After all, more space means more energy, right?
Well, there are a few things you can do to reduce those bills now - and extend with confidence, knowing that you’re not going to come face to face with a MASSIVE bill in a few months’ time!
Switch it up
We all know this already. Switching energy suppliers can be a relatively easy way to bring down those monthly bills, especially if you’re no longer considered a new customer and have been hit with the dreaded ‘Your monthly bill will be increasing by ££££’ letter after the cheap newcomer deal you were on expired.
Using one of those comparison websites does work and spending a while on the phone getting it sorted is definitely worth it to reduce your bills.
Switching to monthly Direct Debit payments can also help to cut your bills.
Update your bathroom
If you’re looking at home improvements but you’re worried that you’re only going to increase your household bills, take a look first at your bathroom. Fresh tiles and upgraded fixtures and fittings can greatly improve your home - and reduce your water bills.
Older taps can use around 14 litres of water per minute, with showers consuming even more. A bathroom makeover, replacing old fixtures with newer eco-friendly products can make the world of difference. They just use less water without restricting your water flow.
You can also reduce water usage by upgrading your toilet to a dual flush system, which allows you to choose from two different flush volumes.
Get smart with your heating
Although we’d all love to have a wonderfully warm house at all times, it doesn’t make sense financially - or environmentally - to have those radiators on full blast 24/7. Here are a few things you can do to reduce your heating bills but remain toasty during the winter months:
Try reducing your thermostat by even 1°C. It’s the smallest of differences in terms of heat output but can reduce heating bills by a sizeable amount.
Time your heating sensibly. It doesn’t need to be on when you’re sleeping or when you’re out (although the latter happens a lot less right now!) so time it to come on an hour or so before you wake up and before you arrive home. And leave it off in between.
Don’t have a universal heat setting across your house. Some rooms need to be warm - where do you spend the most time? Your living room? Then max the heating in there. And nobody likes a cold bathroom! But for other rooms, where you potentially don’t spend as much time, or maybe in your kitchen where the oven puts out heat, keep radiators on a lower setting to save some energy.
Upgrade your glazing
Reduce your use of artificial lighting and heating by upgrading your glazing - particularly if you live in an older property - and introducing skylights to flood your home with natural light. Double-glazing - or triple-glazing if you can afford it - will insulate your home more, increasing the amount of light let in and minimising heat loss.
Extend efficiently
You might think by extending your home, your bills are going to go up. And you’re not wrong…technically. More space means more space to heat. An extra room means another radiator, another light switch and more plug sockets.
But it is possible to make your home extension energy efficient. For example, go for a concrete/brick build, rather than timber frame. The initial output is more but it’s going to last far longer (timber is susceptible to rot) and will conserve heat more.
And incorporate as much natural light into the design as possible with roof windows to reduce your need for electricity-powered lighting.
Our team professionally produces architectural plans with sustainability and environmental concerns in mind from the very beginning. If you’re based in the East Midlands and you’d like to book in with our Nottingham team for a free, no obligation design consultation to discuss sustainable home improvement ideas, please give us a call on 0115 874 8570 - or hit the button below.
If you’re not quite ready to get started, or you’re based elsewhere in the UK, please feel free to check out the rest of our Advice Centre - and connect with us on Instagram and Facebook for tips and inspiration.
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