How to Save Money on Heating When Working from Home

Despite the COVID global pandemic commencing almost two years ago, the impact of restrictions and guidelines continue with many continuing to work from home either full or part time.

Companies have taken opportunities to down-size offices and therefore working life for many may never return to pre-pandemic times, therefore more time is being spent at home working, cooking, and charging multiple devices, meanwhile the cost of energy is soaring.

We will be discussing a number of simple ways to reduce energy usage and save money, whilst working from home.

Top tips to Lower Household Energy Usage

There are a range of easy methods that can reduce household energy usage, which in turn will save money on energy bills. Some of the suggestions are as follows:

Keep The Day Light Coming In

Be aware of screen glare, but where possible, turn off the lights, open curtains and blinds and let the day light in. Not only will the sun-light help naturally top up vitamin D levels, but the electric usage can be saved, weather permitting!

Swap to Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

When the lights must go on, swapping to LED energy efficient light bulbs is a simple,

low-cost improvement to reduce energy usage, that could save up to £40 a year on electricity bills.

Eco-Friendly Settings

We are all in the home more often, which also results in more at home cooking and eating. One simple method of saving energy is to investigate if your dish waster has an eco-friendly setting, heating the water to a lower temperature and yet still cleaning the dishes effectively.

Furthermore, being mindful of fully loading a dish washer before setting it off can also help with reducing the number of times that the device is ran.

Similarly, washing machines also may have a lower temperature wash setting, to save energy by operating at a lower temperature.

Save Hot Water

When boiling the kettle, poor any excess boiled water into a thermos ready for your next hot drink, saving the number of times the kettle is boiled each day.

Put a Lid on Pans

When cooking, reduce the waste of energy by putting a lid on pans on the hob.

Turn off Appliances and Restrict Usage of Tumble Dryers

Changing habits to turn off household appliances completely, rather than leaving on standby when not in use can help save energy. In addition, reducing the use of tumble dryers which use a lot of electricity will also save on household energy costs.

Schedule Heating Programmes

Despite being at home more often, the heating doesn’t need to be ran continuously and therefore setting a programme to control when the heating and hot water needs to operate can save energy.

Turning Down the Thermostat

It is estimated that households could save approximately £80 a year on their household energy bill by turning down the thermostat by one degree. Such a minor change is unlikely to be felt by property occupants but can save money.

Install Smart Thermostat

If budgets allow, investigate the options of installing a smart home thermostat that can be used to automate and override boiler programming remotely via an app on a smart phone. The result is a reduction of wasted energy from heating the property that is unoccupied for example.

Heating Rooms as Required

Another simple way to reduce wasting energy is to only heat the rooms occupied. This can be done either by turning off radiators in rooms that are not in use, or by the use of zoning or presence sensors with smart technology.

Upgrade Household Electrical Appliances

When a household electrical appliance stops working and a replacement unit is required, replacing them with more energy efficient appliances can help save energy.

Upgrade the Boiler

Taking into consideration your own personal budget and the age of the boiler in situ, when the timing is right, upgrading a boiler to a modern, energy efficient model can help reduce energy wastage and keep household bills down.

If you are considering a new boiler, please seek the advice of a professional heating engineer who can recommend a suitable boiler make, model and size for the household requirements.

You may be entitled to a boiler grant too, if you meet the eligibility criteria, which you can discover on Boilergrants.org.uk.

Eco-Friendly Heating

If looking at a new heating system, homeowners or landlords could consider eco-friendly heating options such as a heat pump or solar panels. Such installations do not come cheap, however there may be some Government financial support available.

Upgrade the Property Insulation

All of the energy saving tips in the world will not make much of an impact if energy is wasted through a poorly insulated property. There are many types of insulation available to protect from heat escaping. These include, but are not limited to, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, cladding or external wall insulation.

The costs of each of these methods will vary, as well as square footage required depending on the size of the property. In addition, an inspection visit will likely to be required in order for a survey to be undertaken, for a professional to suggest which type of insulation would be most beneficial and suitable, and to provide quotations.

Draughtproof the property

Similar to insulation, if a property is draughty, energy is likely to be escaping and therefore being wasted. Assessing a property and seeking to draughtproof where needed will help to conserve energy.

There are various methods of draughtproofing activities that can be undertaken such as adding or replacing seals on windows and doors so that air cannot escape, installing letterbox protectors to doors or sealing up letterboxes and installing external letter boxes instead, adding curtains behind draughty doors or using draught stoppers at the base of doors.

Also, planning to replace any single glazed doors or windows will also help increase the energy efficiency of the property.

Obviously, some of these improvements will be more costly than others, and therefore may require some saving for, however any small improvements in the meantime will help save energy.

Monitoring Children

Children tend to be less aware of their energy usage habits and therefore may leave lights and electrical devices on. Monitoring children and demonstrating good habits to them when it comes to energy usage will help them become more aware and make good choices in future.

Have a Smart Meter Installed

Smart meters display the energy usage within a property, which can aid understanding of high energy consumption devices by providing real time usage statistics. Becoming more aware of energy usage can help change habits overtime, as well as the smart meters providing a visual reminder.

Summary

Despite government calls for all office-based staff to return, many companies may be taking a relaxed or combined approach, resulting in home working continuing even on a part time basis. Although there are benefits from not commuting to an office, during times with soaring energy prices household budgets are feeling the pinch of spending more time at home!

We have discussed a range of methods to use less energy within the home in order to save money on household bills.

Whether the current household budget can only stretch to small changes such as switching to LED lightbulbs and turning the thermostat down at present, each small change will add up over time.

However, if a household is in the position to invest in measures to save energy over the medium term, boiler replacements and smart home technology can be installed as well as reviewing the most appropriate Insulation method to save even more energy.