Machines | Clocks back soon – in the dark about energy costs?

It’s that time of year – the clocks go back soon – you know winter's on its way and it’s not long until those energy bills start arriving. By midwinter our daylight hours have shrunk to a third of our barmy summertime days – temperatures are dropping fast. This means our lights, heating and appliances are working that much harder and for longer, all consuming more and more precious energy within our homes. Let’s take a look at how you could reduce your energy bills: With up to 16 hours of darkness during the winter days, lighting is a great starting point. Is your kitchen full of trendy down lights? Each one of these could be consuming 50 watts of power; doesn’t sound much until you multiply this by ten bulbs, then leave them on for ten hours and you’ll be spending 75p day! That could be well over a £100 over the wintertime. Invest in LED equivalents and you’d get that down to around £10! And the bulbs last so much longer! Feeling chilly? don’t want to turn on the heating? Tempted to plug in an electric fire? Don’t! A three-kilowatt fire could cost you 45p an hour to run! Electric fires may be cheap to buy but they’re certainly not the most efficient way of heating. If that’s your only choice, please make sure it’s got a thermostat fitted. And draft-proof your rooms as best you can, heavy curtains help, draft excluders are cheap and effective. Your appliances are next on the list: Are the door seals on your fridge in good order? A broken seal will make it work harder and use more electricity. Ever checked how old you refrigerator is? Did you know an early 90’s fridge freezer could be costing twice as much to run than a modern one, that’s up to £50 a year on year savings! Have you got a tumble dryer? These are real kilowatt eaters; a small cheap and cheerful dryer could cost you dear – over a £140 a year to be exact! Our advice is use them sparingly and buy a modern condensing model if you can. The same applies to washing machines too, as energy efficiency has improved dramatically since energy labels where introduced in the mid-nineties. Modern large drum machines are great time and energy savers. Time to relax? argh… still got a plasma telly? Not good news! An old plasma TV could be costing you as much as your tumble dryer, that’s £100 a year! A new super efficient LED telly uses just £1 worth of electricity a month; it’ll pay for its self in just a couple of years. Saving energy is simple – when you’ve Sust-it!