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Bringing Down Your Utilities Bills

Now that the earth's once seemingly limitless supply of fossil fuels such as natural gas and crude oil is becoming increasingly limited, it has become imperative that everybody takes steps to reduce their energy use. Here are some hints and tips for reducing your carbon footprint – and your utilities bill – without necessarily making any severe lifestyle compromises:

Use more energy efficient appliances. All modern appliances are labelled with energy usage comparison tables that you can use to gauge the relative efficiency of the item in question. If you cannot afford to replace inefficient older appliances, find out if there is any way to make them more energy efficient, such as buying a special adapter or having them converted in some way. Installing modern boiler controls can not only hugely improve the flexibility of your heating system, but it can also save you a pile of money by making more efficient use of the heat produced by your boiler.


If you are not using an appliance, turn it off. A television or computer set to standby still uses around 60% of the power it would require during normal operation, which is a colossal waste of energy, not to mention money. If your computer has a ‘sleep' mode, use this rather than a screen saver, as this uses far less power. Although it takes a little while longer to get it going again, the amount of energy, and therefore money, that can be saved more than makes up for any perceived loss of productivity.

You can generate your own green electricity by installing solar panels and wind turbines on your property. However this can be an expensive business, so the next best thing to do would be to sign up to a green energy supply contract, with either a dedicated green electricity firm, or one of the eco-electricity schemes offered by mainstream suppliers. This does not guarantee that all your electricity will be coming from green sources, as it all feeds into the national grid, but this at least encourages investment in renewables.

Use low-flow shower heads, and insulate your water heater and pipes to reduce heat loss. Make sure that your dishwasher and washing machine are only used for full loads, as this is the best way to ensure that energy is not being wasted in this appliance.

A small reduction in your household temperature can mean a big reduction in your household bills. Nobody will notice if you turn down your thermostat by one degree, but you will certainly notice a reduction of around ten percent of your energy bill!

By: Dave Sabri