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
• Loft insulation
• Improving heating controls
• New boiler
• Heating controls
• Windows

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