Homesearch
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So, is the only way to save money to spend the entire winter attending home maintenance classes at night school and dicing with death on the rickety ladder you've had in your garage for years? Or is there an easier way? Armed with nothing but a computer and a cup of coffee, I've given myself an hour to see if it is possible to winter-proof my home and save my 20 per cent of energy.
Do an online home energy survey
First things first, and before I launch into exercising my credit card I need to know what my priorities should be. So, it's on to the Energy Saving Trust (EST) website (est.org.uk) to complete a home energy check.
I spend five minutes answering questions about the age and type of my house, loft insulation, what kind of boiler and central heating system I have, window type and whether or not I use energy-saving light bulbs.
Then my results are ready. Seconds later, I have in my hand a six-page report telling me how much my home energy running costs are (£1,722 per year) and how much I could get it down to (£1,312).
Apparently, I could save £410 a year by putting in cavity wall insulation and new insulation in my loft. There is a phone number to ring to find out how much all this is going to cost me, but this is an on-line challenge, so, instead, I click on the site's energy saving grants and offers page to see if I can get any help towards the costs.
website: est.org.uk
Time taken: 9 minutes
Cost: None, as yet.
Money saved: Potentially £410 a year off my fuel bills, if I follow the advice given.
Get a grant
Now I know how to get my energy bills down, I want to know if I can get any help with the cost of it all. Experience has taught me not to expect freebies, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I go to the section about energy saving grants and offers to check.
After answering seven questions, such as who supplies my energy (Powergen), am I over 60? (no), am I on benefits (no) and am I a homeowner (yes) the site has a little think as to whether I'm eligible for any assistance. I am amazed and delighted when no less than 12 grant sources come back, including energy suppliers and my local council, potentially offering help with the cost of both the cavity wall and the loft insulation, as well as a couple offering discounts on new energy-saving appliances.
I click on the link to my energy provider's website to find out more about their private homes insulation scheme. I go through all the same questions as before, which is a little tedious, and, in addition tell, them that my family receives Child Tax Credits for my daughter, but it doesn't take long and the results show that Powergen will pay up to half the costs of installing loft and cavity wall insulation - a potential saving of around £350, so well worth doing!
Websites: est.org.uk and energyeffeciency.powergen.co.uk
Time taken: 13 minutes
Cost: Approx £350 if the survey Powergen do of my house shows that we can have cavity wall and loft insulation installed.
Money saved: Half the cost of installation - £350, plus an estimated reduction on my annual fuel bill of £410.
Cut your fuel bills
Cutting the amount of energy I consume is a start, but to save more money I need to pay less for the energy I do use. Powergen, my supplier, put up the price of its gas by 18 per cent and its electricity by ten per cent in August, so it's time to see if I can get a better deal elsewhere. Uswitch.com offer a price comparison service and sorts out companies that could supply your home according to price.
After yet another online questionnaire about my house, I get a list of suppliers who can beat what I'm currently paying. You also get a customer satisfaction rating for each company, and, if you want to, you can search for green energy suppliers only. The best quote beats my current deal by £185 a year and if I want to go ahead with the change I have to complete an online form (again) and wait for the handover to take place, which can take a few weeks.
Website: uswitch.com
Time taken: 7 minutes
Cost: Nothing
Money saved: £185
Book a boiler service
An annual service can keep your existing boiler performing to the best of its capabilities and hopefully prevent any expensive breakdown bills. British Gas (house.co.uk) is now offering home care insurance, whereby you get unlimited call-outs and an annual service on your boiler and central heating system in exchange for a fixed monthly fee of upwards of £12.
But, if like me you are a little wary of these just-in-case policies, there are companies on-line that offer one-off boiler servicing. After a few minutes of Googling I find Homecall (homecallplus.co.uk), who will send out a Corgi-registered contractor to your house within 14 days of booking to carry out a ten-point boiler service for £79.90 (inc VAT). Another company offering a similar deal is ReactFast (reactfast.co.uk). So, it's out with the credit card and, a minute later, my service is booked.
Websites: house.co.uk, homecallplus.co.uk, reactfast.co.uk
Time taken: 15 mins
Cost: £79.90
Money saved: Hard to measure, but a well-running boiler must surely be more efficient, and therefore cost effective.
Buy some energy saving light bulbs
I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have a single energy-saving bulb in my house, having taken the decidedly un-eco friendly option of buying the cheaper ones whenever faced with the decision of buying bulbs in the supermarket.
But having learned that energy- saving bulbs last 12 times longer than normal ones and save up to £10 per bulb per year on your electricity bill, I realise that this is false economy, and the energy-guzzling cheapo bulbs are going.
There are numerous online companies offering discounted bulbs, often with free delivery for bulk purchases.
But offers vary, so it's probably best to search for yourself, and often the best deals are offered by power companies to their customers, so check with your supplier first.
The cheapest I found were £4.95 per bulb from www.greenshop.co.uk, or £17.82 for four, but a leaflet that came through the post from Powergen, my current energy supplier, offers four bulbs for a fiver, so for the first time I don't order online and resort instead to the traditional option of a cheque in the post.
Website: greenshop.co.uk, lightbulbs-direct.co.uk
Time taken: 6 mins
Cost: Nothing spent, as the cheapest deal was found in a leaflet
Money saved: Ten pounds per year, per bulb, so £100 for ten bulbs.
Results
Overall, I spent 50 minutes on line and managed to potentially save myself £1,110 on reduced fuel bills and energy consumption for an outlay of £430.
All in all, not a bad result, though I did end up expending a little energy walking to the post box to order my light bulbs.
View comments (1 comment 10/11/2006 at 14:15)
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