Reduce Your Household Bills By Going Green

Times are tough and money is tight for a lot of us. Here are a few tips you can easily implement to reduce your household bills whilst you save energy.

Go Paperless

Companies such as phone/energy providers, credit cards and catalogs have all been known to charge a little per month for printing and sending paper bills. It might take a while to check everything and switch, but all those little bits add up, so with a bit of a time investment you could save a significant amount – and a lot of paper that would have otherwise been wasted.

Cheap Insulation

If you don’t have double glazing, investing in weather stripping or even drought excluders to fill any cracks around windows and doors is a cheap and effective solution, as is installing heavy curtains or Roman Blinds to keep the heat in after dark. Likewise, conservatory blinds can keep heat in a conservatory in the winter months, and have the added bonus of keeping it shady and cool in the summer.  Those of you without loft insulation should consider placing a thick blanket over the loft hatch before closing it, making sure it overlaps the edges. This will create a thick seal which should prevent heat from escaping into the loft and out through the roof, and less lost heat means lower energy bills!

Wasting Water?

The simplest way to save water is to put an unused brick in your toilet cistern. You’ll use half a gallon less per flush, which is great if you’re on a water meter. If you don’t have a spare brick lying around, lots of water providers will give you a “water saver” for free which serves the same purpose, and if they don’t, fill an unused plastic bottle with sand or gravel, and it’ll do the job.

Turn Down The Boiler

We all know that keeping the heating in our homes low can go a long way to saving both energy and money, but did you know that doing the same with the hot-water thermostat on your boiler can do the same? Having the hot water temperature anywhere above 140F is a waste of energy as your boiler has to work harder to keep it hot, and turning it down means your baths and showers will be a far more pleasant temperature.

This post was written by Liberty-Belle Howard, a UK blogger with a keen interest in green issues. She is currently blogging on behalf of Hillary’s Blinds.