This piece first appeared in Saga Magazine in October 2004
The text here may not be identical to the published text

 

Save energy, make money

The recent price rises for gas and electricity by British Gas are just one warning that the price of heating our homes is steadily rising. The reason is simple. Britain imports more oil than it sells, North Sea gas has begun to run out, and the demand for fuel around the world is rising faster than we can find new sources. And because we use gas and oil to generate most of our electricity, all power prices are rising.

So it is important to make sure that every penny counts when we use fuel. Most of us pay too much for it, let heat leak out of our homes, and use electrical equipment and gas appliances wastefully. It’s not just money that we squander. Burning gas and oil damages the environment. By using less fuel we do the planet a favour as well as our bank balances.

Energy saving measures are also a sound long term investment. A relatively small outlay can produce savings which return the capital in a short time and then produce years of lower costs. If you are approaching retirement, spending money on energy saving when you can afford it will give you extra cash in retirement to spend on more interesting things than gas and electricity! Fuel companies, local councils and the Government all offer help with the cost too. At the end of this month we will all be encouraged to waste less energy in Energy Efficiency Week (25-31 October). Why not get a head start now?

Your home
Most of us live in a colander. What leaks out is not water, but energy. On average £200 worth of wasted energy seeps out through windows, cat flaps, roofs, doors – even the walls every year. It is a lot of money for anyone to waste. For some retired people it is two weeks’ income. Many of the easy steps you can take to stop this waste cost very little and pay back the outlay in a year or less.

Walls - A third of the energy you waste leaks out through the walls. If your home was built between the 1930s and the 1980s it probably has ‘cavity walls’. In other words, two skins of brick separated by a gap. Filling that gap with insulating foam halves the energy loss. Nowadays the process is quick and easy. The work is done from outside your home and should take less than a day. It can save you up to £100 a year off your heating bills and costs as little as £300. So the pay back is in three years and you get an annual 33 per cent return on your investment – forever!

Windows - Replacing draughty windows with new double glazed units will save money off your heating bills. Alternatively you can have original wooden windows fitted with double glazed panes. Double glazing can cut in half the heat lost through windows saving £40 a year off heating bills.

Lofts and tanks - If your loft and hot water tank are not insulated to modern standards then you are wasting money. A water tank jacket costs around £10 and can easily save that much per year off your fuel bills. Nowadays a loft should have an insulation blanket 250mm (10 inches) thick. Loft insulation costs up to £250 but can save £170 a year off your fuel bills. Older people can sometimes get help with emptying the loft before the contractors move in.

Reliable contractors
There have been more cowboys in double glazing and cavity wall filling than in Hollywood westerns. But there are now 52 local Energy Efficiency Advice Centres which will give you a list of contractors who meet industry standards and give guarantees on their work, such as the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) which guarantees material and work for 25 years.

Science in appliances
Heat -
Older boilers send a lot of the heat they generate out of the flue into the air. But modern condensing boilers make sure this heat is reused so the losses are kept to a minimum. They are also smaller and more efficient. If your boiler is more than 15 years old, a new condensing boiler would be an excellent investment which will cut heating bills by up to a third. A bit more spent on modern controls will raise the saving to 40 per cent. Although condensing boilers are a bit more expensive, there are deals and offers which will reduce the price.

Light - The light bulb was invented in 1879. But we still use these inefficient and short-lived Victorian inventions to light our homes. Modern low energy bulbs use a quarter of the electricity and last nine times as long – around six years. The electricity you save can repay the cost of the bulb within a year – and you will also save money on the nine incandescent bulbs you don’t buy over the modern bulb’s six year life. Many electricity suppliers give low energy bulbs away, in fact more than half the low energy bulbs used in homes were not paid for by the customer.

Appliances - Nowadays fridges, washing machines and dishwashers come with energy efficiency ratings ranging from the wicked F to the saintly A. When it comes time to replace them, an ‘A’ rating will save you money – between £15 and £35 a year depending on the appliance. The price of these more efficient appliances is often subsidised so they may cost you no more to buy.

The TV remote control has made life a lot easier. But even when modern TVs, set-top boxes, videos and DVDs are ‘off’ they are really ‘on’ – waiting for our instructions. The Energy Saving Trust says that TVs use £190 million of electricity while they are switched off. Video recorders are even worse – almost all the power they use is while they are on standby. A few moments switching appliances off with the power button rather than the remote will shave a bit more off your electricity bill.

Getting help
All electricity and gas companies have agreed to spend £400 million a year between them to promote energy saving. It is called the Energy Efficiency Commitment and it means they all make offers which will help you save energy. They cut the price of new boilers, subsidise insulation, give away low energy light bulbs, and provide information on ways to save energy, You can get advice and help about saving energy from your local Energy Efficiency Advice Centre on 0800 512 012.

More help
If you are aged 60 or more then there are schemes throughout the United Kingdom to help with the cost of energy saving measures. In England, Wales, Northern Ireland anyone over 60 who gets pension credit or council tax benefit can get up to £2500 (or £2700 in Wales and NI) towards energy saving measures, including installing central heating. Younger people can get up to £1500. In Scotland the grant is only £500 but central heating can be installed completely free for anyone over 60. More information on grants from www.eaga.co.uk or 0800 316 6007. Many local authorities also run their own schemes and the energy efficiency advice centre will tell you what you can get locally.

Power switch
However much energy you save by using it more efficiently, the bill still has to be paid. With power prices rising it is more important than ever to find the cheapest supplier. If you have not changed your electricity or gas supplier over the last few years then you are paying too much for your fuel. Half of us have not switched, wasting on average £60 a year on electricity and around £80 on gas.

The same electricity comes through the same wires, and the same gas through the pipes. Safety is still ensured by the companies that run the electricity network and the gas pipes. But the company that retails the fuel and sends you the bill will change and will be cheaper than British Gas or your local electricity supplier.

You can find the cheapest fuel for your home from a number of companies that keep all the information and of course take a fee when you switch. One of the oldest is uSwitch. Call 0800 093 0607 or go to its website at www.uswitch.com. Alternatively www.energyhelpline.com will give you £10 cashback when you switch supplier online. You can find a complete list of switching companies and see which energy suppliers get the most complaints – from the official consumer body for gas and electricity, energywatch on 0845 06 07 08 or www.energywatch.org.uk.

One option you won’t be offered by website comparison services is Staywarm from Powergen. You pay a fixed amount each month for all your electricity and gas however much you use. It is available to any household in Great Britain where at least one person is aged 60 or more. The price depends on the number of bedrooms (more than three is not allowed) and how many people live in the house (more than four is not allowed). The cost also varies by region. For example two people in a two bedroom house will pay between £638 and £703 a year. This deal may not be the cheapest but it does remove the worry about how much power you are using. More from Powergen 0800 1 694 694.

October 2004


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