How to save on your electricity bill
Here is something that we have been practising in our house for a long time. Both my wife and I are at home most days and every night, not because we work from home but, because we are both now pensioners and my wife is disabled. We can't go out much because of that fact. So, when we have the heating on in the winter, like most other people's situation, the bills go up. When the warmer weather arrives and we turn off our heating, gas and electric use generally goes down. But we are used to it happening and can adjust our energy use budget to cope. It's not easy but we've learned to manage since we both retired from our day jobs. One 'secret' is to retain the same payment structure if paying monthly via direct debit like we do; do not be tempted to lower the amount paid, because it builds up enough credit on your file to help with the much higher winter payments. A juggling act, if you like.
But, here's the thing. Following on from Covid, when a lot of people were instructed or decided to work from home, they instantly got the shock of their lives when their energy bills went through the roof. Those same people realised all too late that, by working from home, they were using much more electricity and gas by switching their computers on, flicking the light switch on as daylight became dusk and, by putting the heating on a lot sooner than when they had been out at work all day. It all very quickly adds up.
So, what is the solution? The truth is, there is not a straightforward answer to the conundrum, except maybe the option I mentioned above about keeping your direct debit payments constant throughout the year. It usually follows, though, that if you are at home all day and every day and you have the lights and heating on in the winter months then you will come to notice higher than previous bills were when you were out at work all day. Then, if you get past that shock, there's the thing called 'phantom load' (also known as 'standby power'). This is where people leave their electric components on standby when they are not in use. Things like the TV, cable or satellite box, mobile phone charger, laptop if plugged into the mains and so on when left on standby can seep energy from the national grid and onto your bill. Where one item left on standby may use a negligible amount of 'phantom load' each time, several items also left on standby with each one's plug sucking electricity from their sockets in the wall results in a multiplying effect and much higher bills. And it all adds up.
Televisions, digital boxes, even mobile phone chargers are designed to be switched off at the wall, when not in use, to no detrimental effect. That cuts any current coming through into the home and onto the energy bill. Items like cookers and microwave ovens, especially when they have integrated clocks, can also be switched off at the wall. This will not hurt them as they are designed to be turned off when not in use. Obviously there are certain household gadgets that need to remain on, like the internet router/modem, the recently digitised house (aka landline) telephone and the fridge and freezer. Items like washing machines should also be switched off at the wall when not in use. Everything that is only left on standby for the sake of ease of access as listed above should be switched off at the wall as a matter of course. So, the TV or digibox will take a couple of minutes to boot up again next time you use them, so what? Money spent out on unnecessary phantom loads will be much better served in your bank or building society account - or even your pocket.
This is not a crusade for telling you to switch all your gadgets and gizmos off when you go to bed at night but, rather, some sound advice to hopefully help you to reduce those scarily large energy bills when they drop on your doormat or into your email inbox. Maybe you'll thank me one day for tipping you the nod.
Trevor Mulligan