How To Cut Energy Costs Around The Home

Running a household can be expensive in terms of energy bills, especially during the winter months when heating bills rise as the weather gets colder. However, there are a number of things you can do to conserve energy and lower the cost of your bills.

• Solar Panels. Solar panels have multiple benefits once installed, not only do they make your electricity bills cheaper, they also have a ‘feed-in’ tariff that pays users for the energy their solar panels generate. There are also various deals and offers around- including government incentives, that can help with the cost of installing solar panels.
• Air Source Heat Pumps. Air source heat pumps are used to absorb heat from outside air and turn this into heat for radiators, under-floor heating systems and hot water within your home. When used instead of conventional heating systems, air source heat pumps can dramatically reduce your energy bills and also have the potential to generate revenue as part of the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive.

Air source heat pumps are often found to be more suitable for systems that deliver heat at lower temperatures over longer periods of time such as under-floor heating or larger radiators.

• Storage Heaters. The benefit of using storage heaters is that they are more easily controlled than many other forms of heating, allowing you to control when to conserve or release the stored energy. Storage heaters work by using ‘off-peak’ electricity to charge up and store heat over night which can then be release throughout the day. The heaters have two controls- output and input which allow you to choose how much heat you want to release and how much you think you will need them to regenerate. This is beneficial as you can save the energy within the heaters in rooms that you may not be using or if you are out of the house for a while. You can also adjust the controls for the changing seasons, so during the spring and summer the usage can be reduced or even cut completely, creating huge savings in energy bills.
• Biomass systems. Also known as wood-fuelled heating systems, biomass systems can reduce energy costs by up to £600 per year. Biomass systems burn wood to produce heat which can be used for a single room or to power a central heating system and boiler and although there is a cost for the wood fuel needed to power the systems, it is often cheaper than other energy options. Wood-fuelled heating systems are also more environmentally friendly as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the burning process is equal to the amount absorbed by the plant or tree over the years that it was growing. Biomass systems also have the potential to generate income under the Renewable Heat Incentive from the UK government.
• Ground Source Heat Pumps. Through the use of pipes that are buried underground, ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) extract heat from the ground and turn it into usable energy for your home. GSHP’s work by circulating a mixture of water and anti-freeze through a loop underground which absorbs heat from the ground and sends it to your heating system. Energy bills can be reduced, carbon emissions lowered and there is also the possibility of energy created this way generating a return under the Renewable Heat Incentive.

There is a variety of energy saving systems available that can help you to reduce energy bills, lower carbon emissions and event generate an income from the energy produced. Take the time to research each option to see which system is best suited to your house and budget.