Page last updated at 16:21 GMT, Thursday, September 22 2011
Ways to Save Energy
To get in-depth advice about energy in the home you can go to
the Energy
Saving Trust website or call the Energy Savings Trust
Advice Centre on 0800 512 012 or 0800 804 8601 (Southampton).
Electricity
The Government has agreed to put a requirement on energy
suppliers to fit Smart meters into every home, because they will
ensure that bills are more correct, and help residents to save
energy and thus reduce energy bills at home. Find out more
about the national roll out of Smart
Meters with this Ofgem factsheet. Benefits of
smart meters include:
- No more estimated bills!
- Real time information to help you decide how much energy you
are using, and how big your bills will be
- the early detection of any problems with your supply.
- Greater possibility of having reduce tariff rates at different
times of day.

- Much clearer information about your home energy.
In the meantime.....
You may borrow one of
these currentcost
counter-top electricity display monitors from
any Eastleigh library at no cost. The monitor is
easy to use - just clip on to your mains wire, and plug
the monitor in. It will show you the amount of
electricity you are using at any one time and has been
shown to be very effective in reducing consumption - and
bills!
Only buy electric appliances that are A rated. These are
often better quality products.

Low energy lights
Low energy lightbulbs
last up to 12 times longer than a standard light bulb and use far
less energy, saving around £10 a year on electricity
bills for each bulb fitted. A 20 watt low energy bulb is as
bright as a 100 watt standard bulb, and the quality of the lights
is being improved all the time.
The best place to fit these bulbs is where lights are left on
for long periods such as the living room, hallway and
landing. Low energy bulbs cannot be used where an
electronic timer or dimmer switch is fitted.
Top tip: only boil the water you need for
the number of cups you are making. Electric kettles are high
users of electricity (~1.5-2 kW)
Turn appliances off stand by and
remove mobile phone chargers from wall
Cool food before storing in refrigerator
Keep freezer well stocked, and fill washing machines each time
rather than doing half a load, or only a few dishes
Use microwave rather than electric oven where possible (another
high user!)
Dry clothes in fresh air rather than drier where possible.
Turn off lights when not in the
room
You get the
picture!
Reduce Heating Bills
The energy you use to heat your home and water is approximately
70% of your total energy use in the home. So, the most
important thing to do is to insulate!
The heat you pay so much for is leaking to the outside through
your walls, roof, floor, doors and windows, but we can greatly
reduce this.
New homes are built with high standards of insulation, but older
properties - which still make up about 2/3 of our homes, may have
no insulation at all. Your loft insulation may have
been put in many years ago when standards were much
lower. This has led one commentator to state:
"In this country our homes act as warm air
tunnels: they keep us warm almost incidentally as the heat pours
past us and into the street" (Monbiot, 2005)
The cost of these insulation measures means
you quickly recoup your investment through savings
on fuel bills - usually within 2 years.
As can be seen from the picture, quite a small
amount of heat is lost through the windows. This means double
glazing is not the most cost effective way of saving energy.
Cavity Wall Insulation
There are various
ways that you may able to get financial help for cavity wall
insulation and other heating works. Visit our grants page to find out
more.
The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA) www.ciga.co.uk is a
government backed agency and trade association. It approves
installers on the basis that they guarantee their work for 25
years. Through this scheme any defects in materials or workmanship,
in connection with the installation by a member installer, will be
rectified without charge to you. The CIGA website also has a useful
frequently asked question
section about cavity wall insulation
Loft insulation
The majority of the houses
in the Borough have some loft insulation fitted. For many
homeowners this was put in many years ago when standards of loft
insulation were much lower. As the current standard
is now 10 inches of loft insulation, it is worth
checking if yours was done some time ago.
There is a range of insulation materials available.
The most common, found in DIY stores or offered by installers
under grant scheme, are:
- Blown mineral wool / blown mineral fibre (from professional
installers only) - usually installed where access is limited
- Mineral wool quilt
- Loose fill e.g. warmcell (recycled newspaper)
New Central Heating Boiler
If you are
looking to replace your boiler, it is now a legal requirement under
Building Regulations that you install a condensing boiler, unless
you can demonstrate that this is impracticable or unreasonably
expensive in your particular case. Ask your Gas Safety
Registered installer for information about how
to appeal. These high efficiency boilers are typically
88% efficient, compared to standard new boilers which are around
72% efficient.
The Energy Savings Trust has published a Heating
Guide , which includes information about
condensing boilers, programmers and more.
When replacing a gas fired boiler, always
use an installer registered under the Gas Safety
Register to do the work.
See the
Government's Direct website for more
information on boilers and the Gas Safety
Register.
Improve heating controls
Without heating
controls it is hard to control the level of heating in your
home. You can cut your central heating costs by up to 17% by
controlling these four things:
- Room temperature
- Temperature of stored hot water
- On/off times for heating and hot water
- Switching off the boiler when heating is no longer needed
Windows
While windows themselves lose heat
quickly through the glass, as the overall area of window is small
compared to other surfaces of your house (such as the walls), they
only account for 5-10% of the heat lost from your home.
Double glazing has become very popular in recent years. As
it is relatively expensive and the amount of heat saved fairly
small, you may not wish to consider it for energy saving reasons
alone. Good draught proofing and thermally lined curtains can
significantly cut heat loss and will cost much less.
Double glazing is popular for other reasons such as
security, noise reduction and reduced maintenance. You need
to weigh up all these factors before replacing your windows.
Under current building regulations, when replacing windows
they must be fitted with low emissivity glass (sometimes
called 'low-E' or 'K-glass'). You should look for a
FENSA registered
installer to make sure the windows are fitted to building
regulation standards.
Further things to consider:
- uPVC (plastic) windows do not last forever.
They represent a large waste disposal problem as they do not
break down. The manufacture of uPVC also uses large amounts
of energy.
- A number of manufacturers offer timber framed double
glazed windows which are a more sustainable alternative,
although generally more expensive.
For more information contact the Government's national energy
efficiency advice line on 0800 512 012 or the Council's Home energy
efficiency officer on 023 8068 8274
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