How to save thousands on your energy bills.

With energy prices up-ended by the war in Ukraine and likely to stay high for some time, our Founder and CEO, Lucy, discusses how she has reduced the energy bills in her 4-bedroom terraced London house by a third over the last few years - without living in the dark or freezing.

How to stay warm in the age of gas shortages?

We all knew that there’d be an energy reckoning as we take action globally to slow the rate of global warming, we just didn’t think it would hit this hard. Putin’s attempted annexation of Ukraine has changed everything - not just geo-politically but also in our homes.

In 2023, the annual household energy bill went as high as an eye-watering £2,500, but even having come down from this high, it’s unlikely prices will drop to the sorts of rates we were used to for quite some time. For a nation with badly insulated houses that are largely reliant on gas boilers for our heating, energy prices like this are a particular shock. 

As part of my role as a sustainability coach, I’ve spent the last few years getting to grips with the energy bills in our 4 bedroom terraced period home in west London. I’ve reduced our energy bills by about 30% over that time - with further savings coming on board as we’ve just finished insulating our house.

The first thing to say is that there are some low-hanging fruit with home energy conservation that come free. But what I quickly learnt is that in order to save money over the longer term we had to be prepared to spend money upfront. And that took a mind-set shift from paying as we go to pay now, save later.

Starting with electricity…

Electricity prices have traditionally been higher than gas in the UK. Now the pent up energy demand in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, the German switch from nuclear power to gas and the invasion of Ukraine are pushing up the costs of both. Still, as electricity savings are reasonably easy, it makes sense to look first at your electricity bill.

Switching it off:

We bought our house 12 years ago, and it had no double-glazing, a mix of incandescent and halogen bulbs and some old appliances that were mainly energy rated at C-E. You no doubt heard it ad nauseum from your parents but the old adage “switch it off” is boringly effective. Getting into the habit of switching off lights and appliances at the wall - at least those that power digital clocks or have glowing red stand-by buttons - has saved us around £40 a year.** Because it can be a hassle to remember, we also use timer plugs on our TV and microwave so that they automatically move to stand by at certain times of day.

Switching to LEDs:

Next up, switching over our old light bulbs. Lighting makes up nearly a fifth of the average electricity bill, so switching to LEDs (which use 90% less energy) is a big-time energy saver. At a £4 a year saving on around 50 bulbs, the annual saving here is around £200. As our old bulbs burned out, I replaced them with LEDs, but the vast array of ceiling downlights were beyond me as they needed new transformers. So I hired Paint the Town Green* to remove some of them and replace the others with LEDs, at a cost of £1000.

Tala sell gorgeous LED lights that are 90% more efficient than traditional bulbs

Moving to energy efficient appliances:

As our old appliances have packed up over the past decade, we’ve replaced them with the most energy efficient on the market. And it’s surprised me how much of a difference that’s made to our energy bills. For instance, our old C-rated fridge freezer cost an average £151 a year to run whilst the typical annual cost of our new A+++ rated fridge freezer is just £38 - a difference of £113. Add in the replacement of an ancient and unrepairable washing up machine and similar tumble drier and the savings are in the region of £500 a year.

Washing machine:

Like many of us, we’d got into the habit of washing our clothes at 40*C or above but in reality, clothes wash just fine at 30*. Ever wondered why delicates wash at 20*C or less? The truth is hot washes cost money and wear the fibers of clothes, meaning they wear out faster. We’re saving around £10 a year running our washing machine at lower temperatures and doing one less wash a week.

And now for the heating…

It’s the heating of our home that has been the most complex area - and I’ve found the hardest one to tackle. 

Over 80% of British homes are heated with gas boilers, and as we all know gas bills have skyrocketed and our home is no exception. We live in a period terraced house which is over 200 years old, and when we moved in it was as leaky as a cauldron, and looking at our heating bills, I realised we’ve spent hundreds of pounds over the last decade generously heating the air around it. So I started with the free options and worked my way up from there.

Turning down the heating:

It’s become a rallying cry for the European world. The International Energy Agency estimates that if everyone in Europe turned their thermostat down by 1* it would cut Russian gas demand by 7%. Not huge, but a start.

In our own home, we’ve found that turning down the thermostat by 1*C has saved us about £75 a year. We run our heating for a few hours in the morning and evening and have been working on insulating the house so we don’t lose any of that heat.

For those of us who still use Fahrenheit to judge the temperature!

Being radiator savvy:

We were lucky enough to have thermostatic radiator valves already installed when we bought the house, and we make good use of them by moderating the temperature according to how the room is used. The Energy Savings Trust estimates these can save around £75 a year. We also make use of blinds and curtains, pulling them when the sun goes down in winter to retain the heat.

I placed Radflek foil behind the radiators in rooms with newer radiators that don’t have gaps between the bars. They’re easy to install, cost £21.99 for a couple of sheets of foil that was enough for 6 radiators in our home and, according to Radflek, reduce heat loss into the wall behind by 45% saving up to £40 on your bill a year.

Yes, insulation is key:

To save money in much of this country’s leaky housing stock, the only real solution is to better insulate our homes. Our house is built from brick and our windows were single-glazed and many had wind rushing through gaps around them. So I started with draught-proofing.

It’s not hard to test for a draught: run a lit candle around the perimeter of the window and see where it curves and flickers. If it’s dancing around, you’ve got a draught. There are many different insulating strips to choose from and most you can fit yourself.

I also found our chimney was a sneaky way for heat to escape with as much as 5% of our household heating going straight up it. We invested in a Chimney Sheep for £45 which claims to reduce energy bills for the average household by £99 a year. (One very important thing: don’t forget to remove the draught excluder from inside the chimney when you light a fire and on Christmas Eve, so Santa can make his way down).

Mitchell and Dickinson* specialise in insulating period and listed buildings

But what I also discovered is that insulating an old house is not a job for amateurs. With newly-made double-glazed sash windows rather out of our price range, I turned to Mitchell & Dickinson*, one of the foremost companies specialising in insulation for period and listed properties. This summer, they finished installing secondary-glazing on all of our windows, insulated our front door and reassured me that our loft was already insulated. 

We have large sash windows through the house, so even secondary-glazing cost around £1,200 per window but Mitchell & Dickinson say the glazing reduces heat loss by around 70% per window and that costs can be recouped within 4-8 years. For us, the financial benefits won’t be felt for some time but in the long run a better insulated home can cut your heating bill by as much as half.

Swapping to a heat pump:

Insulating our home is also going to save us money when we install a heat pump. We’re eyeing up Octopus Energy’s heat pumps which launched in 2022. With the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme contributing £7,500, and with better insulation in our house, we’ll need to spend around £2500 - about the same as a gas boiler for a four bedroom house like ours.

A heat pump works like a fridge in reverse, by sucking in cool air and pumping out warm. But while a gas boiler has an efficiency rate of 94% - meaning for every pound spent six pence is wasted - for every kilowatt of electricity you put into a heat pump you’re going to get three to four times more energy. Because of this, even though the cost of electricity is four times that of gas, a heat pump costs about the same to run.

The potential savings with a heat pump are the shelf-life of a heat pump which at 18-20 years is roughly double that of a gas boiler - and also the bet that we taking in our household that electricity prices will come down in the next few years as the nation pivots away from gas.

With gas imports bulking up Putin’s war chest, and our gas boiler now the biggest carbon emitter in our lives, we’re increasingly feeling ready to make the switch.

For more ways to save money, check out our How to save Money by Going Green blog.

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**All energy saving figures from the Energy Savings Trust

If you’re struggling to pay your energy bills, check if you’re eligible for the Warm Home Discount rebate or Winter Fuel Payment or you can contact the following organisations: the National Debtline on Freephone 0808 808 4000 or www.nationaldebtline.org or the Citizens Advice service on 0808 223 1133.