Ways to save money on energy bills

The beginning of this new year is a wonderful opportunity to share some thrifty tips! In this article I'll share my tips about how to save water, and hence save money too. The theory is that if you can reduce the amount of water you use you also reduce your other energy bills too. After all, it takes less gas or electricity to heat the water up for starters. Once the show’s gone out I’ll link to some clips from it, but if you’re wanting to save water then here are my top five tips. 1. Shower It may seem obvious, but shower instead of having a bath. And even better still, have a short shower. The “recommended time” for a thrifty shower is four minutes, but to be honest that seems quite long to me. Work out how long you normally spend in the shower and then aim to reduce that time as much as possible. There are even loads of shower timers on the market to make sure you’re in and out as fast as possible! If you’re already a shower person, ask yourself if you have an eco shower head or not. These can use up to 30% less water than a conventional shower head – hence saving you even more water and money. 2. Turn off Whether brushing your teeth, washing your face, or doing the washing up, turn off the tap as much as possible. It doesn’t need to be running all the time as otherwise you are literally throwing money down the drain. Also, if you do the washing up by hand consider investing in a washing up bowl. Not only do they hold less water than a kitchen sink does (hence saving money instantly!) but also your washing up water is likely to stay hotter for longer in one – another little energy saving measure! 3. Full loads only If you use a washing machine or dishwasher then make sure that you only ever run it when you have a full load. It’s the most efficient way of running your machine and the programmes normally use a volume of water that assumes it is a full load, so otherwise it’s just more water down the drain. 4. Fix the drips Talking of money down the drain... that's exactly what a drip of a leak is. Get those dripping taps and leaky toilet fixed as soon as you can. It may be that you just need something simple like a new washer in a tap and a few pence on one of those can save you loads in the long run. Most DIY stores have some excellent guides now online to help you do jobs like that yourself – just like this one that can help with sorting out dripping taps. 5. Use a butt If you have a garden of any size then it’s definitely worth considering getting a water butt. You can buy a simple kit to connect a water butt to a downpipe from your gutters and then every time it rains (which let’s be honest happens a lot!) you’re basically getting free water to use on your garden. If you want to go a step further you could even use this water to wash your car with!