Archived Entries - Fuel
Fuel Bills
A sure way to end light-hearted conversation is to mention household fuel bills and their meteoric rise over the past seven years. According to the comparison website moneysupermarket.com household bills have doubled since 2003. With record low temperatures in December, my heart goes out to all of you who rely on oil to heat your homes who have seen unfair and exorbitant price rises as demand for oil has soared. Fuel poverty is a real issue amongst the vulnerable and occurs when more than 10% of household income is dedicated to paying fuel bills. However, with a degree of guile and imagination, we can do our best to reduce our energy consumption in the following ways:-
- Be savvy and search out competitive deals from other suppliers. There is nothing a service supplier likes more than a customer who is compliant and loyal to them. One thing I have begun to recognise in life is that there is little personal gain in being a loyal customer. Make your supplier be it your telephone provider or utility supplier work for their money and above all, take the time to search out more competitive deals. Also, avoid being caught in the trap of thinking that you have to stay with a supplier for a certain period of time. You can in some circumstances, change supplier after as little as 6 weeks for example but do check that the tariff you are on does not incur any penalties for doing this. I changed my dual fuel supplier last year and was rewarded with a more competitive tariff and Nectar bonus points which paid for my turkey!
- Be Proactive and submit your meter readings. Again, we are all too comfortable in paying estimated bills which falls right into the hands of the utility supplier. If your gas and electricity meters are not regularly read, estimated readings mean that you could be paying more for gas or electricity than you actually use. More importantly, if you do not submit your own meter readings, you will not be entitled to a refund should you find you have overpaid.
- Take the exercise and switch your appliance off at the plug. It is something we all do with unerring regularity and will ultimately cost us in the long run. Leaving appliance on standby is a real no no and can cost us up to £10 per month per appliance.
- Invest in Mastic and Foam. If you feel a draught, that will often indicate a potential heat loss source. In this case, try if possible to seal any gaps by either using mastic or expandable foam. By doing so, you would not only reduce the draughts but also your carbon footprint by approximately 15-20%!
- Get those Curtains lined or shutters ordered. Sadly windows are one of the most efficient ways of losing heat from your property. This is a real issue if you live in a listed property with single pane windows and the potential to have them replaced not possible on historic building grounds.
- Last but not least, wrap up warm and turn that thermostatic control down by 1 or 2 degrees.
If you have imaginative ways of reducing your fuel bills, we look forward to hearing them in the comments.
How to Fight Back when it comes to Household Fuel Bills
A sure way to end light-hearted conversation is to mention household fuel bills and their meteoric rise over the past seven years. According to the comparison website moneysupermarket.com household bills have doubled since 2003. Fuel poverty is a real issue amongst the vulnerable and occurs when more than 10% of household income is dedicated to paying fuel bills. However, with a degree of guile and imagination, we can do our best to reduce our energy consumption in the following ways:-
- Be savvy and search out competitive deals from other suppliers. There is nothing a service supplier likes more than a customer who is compliant and loyal to them. One thing I have begun to recognise in life is that there is little personal gain in being a loyal customer. Make your supplier be it your telephone provider or utility supplier work for their money and above all, take the time to search out more competitive deals. Also, avoid being caught in the trap of thinking that you have to stay with a supplier for a certain period of time. You can in some circumstances, change supplier after as little as 6 weeks for example but do check that the tariff you are on does not incur any penalties for doing this. I changed my dual fuel supplier last year and was rewarded with a more competitive tariff and Nectar bonus points which paid for my turkey!
- Be Proactive and submit your meter readings. Again, we are all too comfortable in paying estimated bills which falls right into the hands of the utility supplier. If your gas and electricity meters are not regularly read, estimated readings mean that you could be paying more for gas or electricity than you actually use. More importantly, if you do not submit your own meter readings, you will not be entitled to a refund should you find you have overpaid.
- Take the exercise and switch your appliance off at the plug. It is something we all do with unerring regularity and will ultimately cost us in the long run. Leaving appliance on standby is a real no no and can cost us up to £10 per month per appliance.
- Invest in Mastic and Foam. If you feel a draught, that will often indicate a potential heat loss source. In this case, try if possible to seal any gaps by either using mastic or expandable foam. By doing so, you would not only reduce the draughts but also your carbon footprint by approximately 15-20%!
- Get those Curtains lined or shutters ordered. Sadly windows are one of the most efficient ways of losing heat from your property. This is a real issue if you live in a listed property with single pane windows and the potential to have them replaced not possible on historic building grounds.
- Last but not least, wrap up warm and turn that thermostatic control down by 1 or 2 degrees.
If you have imaginative ways of reducing your fuel bills, we look forward to hearing them in the comments below.
Act Now to Save on Your Fuel Bills
I awoke this morning to read that household energy bills are predicted to soar by as much as 40% this winter as oil prices continue to rise. With wholesale gas prices already at a record high, investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts crude oil will rise to $200 per barrel from the current high of $123. The reasons for the price hike are complex, but what remains is that like it or not, we will all have to pay more for our household energy. Again, it will be the most vulnerable in our society who will bear the brunt and we must all act now to head off a potential social and economic crisis.
What can we all do to ease the price pain for less than £30?
- There is no such thing as loyalty in the world of free markets, shop around. By this I mean, don't be afraid to leave your current energy supplier. Use the many comparison websites to find a tariff that suits your lifestyle.
- If finances allow, why not pay for your energy bills by direct debit?
- Savings can be further found if you opt for a dual fuel tariff from the supplier; that is, get both your gas and electricity from them.
- Did you know that cutting down on drafts could significantly cut your heating bills as quite literally, you are heating the atmosphere? When you have the time, simply get your mastic gun out and fill all those gaps you may have between your walls and skirting boards and around window frames. By doing this, you will reduce drafts and the amount of heat lost to the outside.
- Think of fitting heat deflectors to your radiators. I appreciate they are a fiddle to fit (fixed to the wall immediately behind the radiator) but believe you me; I have already noticed the difference. Quite simply, they deflect heat that would be lost to the wall back into the room where the heat is most needed.
- Don't leave electronic devices on standby and the one lesson I have taken from junior school is that when you leave a room, turn the lights off and shut the door behind you.
We all have sit up and recognise that in economic terms, things are going to get harder for us all and with a little imagination, I hope we can lessen the anticipated burden of the impending rise in energy prices by taking some simple and relatively easy steps.
