THIS is How to Save Money on Your Energy Bills!

With the nationwide focus on the current energy crisis and rising energy costs for all consumers, this week’s episode aims to help as many people as possible understand and manage their home energy bills.

More than 70% of the costs of a typical household energy bill can be attributed to heating and hot water, so in this episode Imogen goes through what all the numbers mean and how they're calculated.

We also share insights from an industry expert on what small measures everyone can make to keep their usage, and the costs, under control.

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[ikek]

Shivering is quite a cost effective way to save on gas bills, I’ll have slimmed down perfectly for the beach by the time it warms up again

[Naultarous]

I really like the shows that Imogen does. Far to often presenters come of as knowing something that I don't and it feels like pretentious preaching. Imogen's delivery always feels like she does actually know the topic and is presenting as helpful info we can try. Not YOU MUST DO or you're a bad person. Always given as options backed up by real facts. Thank you for being awesome.

[spikewalker]

I was getting very disillusioned with the main Fully Charged channel. But I'm very happy with the direction the Everything Electric channel is taking. Real world, real use, not more mega-bucks cars, houses and technology that most of us will never afford.

More. Of. This!

[gigabyte]

Some energy suppliers provide time-of-use electricity tariffs. They can be a good way to save money on washing, drying and EV charging, as the overnight rate can be less than a third of the day rate (which is usually slightly higher).

If you are considering any changes to your house, remember the retrofit industry's motto: fabric first. Ensure that the building is waterproof, eliminate draughts and ensure wall and loft insulation is up to snuff. Heat pumps are being talked up a lot, but the cheapest energy is still the energy that you don't use. If you can't afford a professional solution, consider exploring homebrew options (e.g. masking tape along draughty window seals).

As mentioned in the video, turning down radiator circulation temperature can greatly improve the efficiency of the system. If you're struggling to get the building warm enough, make sure that the thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) are opened wherever practical - it's more efficient to have a low flow temperature and a high flow rate.

I hope to see more change and more support for home improvement from central government. Insulation is key to reducing our energy and fossil fuel consumption. The price of electricity in the UK is being kept artificially high, due to outdated market pricing regimes, and reform is desperately needed to make sure heat pumps (the more efficient solution) deliver the lower total cost of ownership, compared to gas boilers, that they are truly capable of. As we've seen with electric vehicles, once the total cost of buying and running the thing is cheaper, adoption will take off, prices will fall and adoption will keep accelerating until better technology is widespread.

[weeblewonder]

This is great advice! Always good to have nice bytesized informative videos.

As a renter in a house with a 40 year old plumbing. Boiler, radiators, gas fireplace.
I've resorted to using a portable air conditioner with a heat pump to try and just keep the living space bearable.

Landlords area huge part of the problem of this energy crisis.

[caterthun]

Have you a heated bathroom mirror. Ours was on all the time. It's only 70 watt. Does not look much use.. I was wrong. Sum its 0.07 kw x 24hrsx 365 days x 0.31p/kw. That's £190
Not all mirrors heating are on all the time. Some only when lights on. Suggest check...

[tinrobot]

Congratulations on the new channel. Dan's previous videos and Imogens latest ones are really good and you couldn't have timed things better. The fact the UK has such poorly insulated housing stock is disgraceful, we are literally frittering money away. Keep up the great work

[frejaresund]

I have been enjoyed, so thank you for delivering.

[kennethstealey]

As an old person living in an old house, I don't have a thermostat. The gas fire is either on or off.

[johnsamsungs]

If you turn off things at the wall you will save money because a lot of things these days are on standby mode. This is to save you from waiting half a second before it turns on. The TV, microwave and some other things use electricity when they are turned off. Just turn it off at the wall!

[petesplaneta]

Great clear explanations. It’s surprising as to how many people don’t understand something that’s so important.

[JohnMcKillop]

*_Nice one Imogen... very helpul information made easy to follow..._*

[maxvaessen]

Another interesting topic is how to optimise heatpumps for the homes they’re in. I found during research that over 150 newly built homes with heatpumps are all configured to run far hotter then is needed. This is wasting a lot of energy

[samspencer]

Remember one of the most effective ways you can save the average person money on their energy bills is to vote out the current government who've ignored even the CEOs of oil and gas companies who said they should pay more windfall tax.

[MrRawMonkey]

I am using 52% less gas than in 2019, where I have complete daily records. This is achieved by running the central heating at 50C instead of 65C with a thermostat set at 18.5C instead of 20C. Hot water is reduced from 60C, where I had to add cold to just 42C.

The old 42kw Combi boiler has been replaced by a 32kW Combi that although offers similar efficiency better matched the size of the home plus it modulates better. I also have smart controls operating the boiler.

Electricity consumption is reduced by 32% by switching items off from the socket and changing eco settings. Also we try to use the oven less.

Despite the cutback my energy consumption for the week ending 19th November 2022 still cost £48.00 for 7 days of consumption😢

[mayflowerlash]

Is it just me who confuses kW and kWh. This is how I remember. kW is the rate of energy flow. The kWh is the total energy consumed over a period of time ie 1kWh is 1kW flowing for 1 hour.
Hope this helps.

[uknick]

Why did you use an example of five 100w incandescent bulbs? VERY few homes have these old bulbs these days and most of us are now using LED which use a fraction of the energy and really aren’t an issue in the grand scale of things. The consequence of using that example is to sustain the preconception that lights are bad and should be turned off - this is particularly true for the elderly. You could have avoided this confusion by making the comparison of incandescent vs LED bulbs thereby putting those who have swapped mind at rest and encouraging any folk who haven’t to switch.

[James_Ryan]

4:45 If that old TV that uses 210W is due for replacement and you can afford it, consider replacing it now for one that uses <70W. Also consider being less lazy and wash dishes by hand until prices return to normal...

[HugoGrimmett]

What on earth is happening in the graph at 5:13? Why is £139 (Fridge freezer post Oct 1st [red]) shown higher than £226 (Tumble drier pre Oct 1st [blue])?

[Nikoo]

Having a smart meter and an IHD are useful to evaluate the energy consumption by all your appliances and anything using electricity. Basically, once you’ve insulated your house and prevented any draught, in order to save money, you have to reduce the time you use anything that has a resistor, or simply avoid it possible (e.g toaster, kettle, oven, dish washer drying step, high temp on the washing machine). TV is quite bad too, so if not watching, turn it off. Now, what the IHD has taught me is that when your boiler heats up water, it not only burns gas, but also uses 180W of electricity to pump that water into your heating system… so yes, 42deg for hot water and 50-56deg as temperature for the water going into your heating system are largely sufficient and you’ll save money.