How to save on electricity bills - 7 tips that will help you keep costs down

Most people pay too much for electricity bills. There are plenty of ways to cut electricity costs by changing our daily routine, or just by comparing different electricity suppliers. There are a few electricity comparison website that will help you getting the best deal on the market. You can also compare electricity with gas prices. For now, we will concentrate on the habits we need to take to make sure we cut costs on the next bill.

1. Save a Lot by Reducing a Little

Did you reducing your thermostat by 1 degree would save you around £40 on you electricity bill? Decreasing the average temperature of 4 degrees would save you around £170. Of course, you probably don't want to go that far - but there are no little savings, as they all add up in the end.

2. Insulate your House

First step is obviously to get double glaze for you house. But then, you might still notice that the as soon as you turn off the heaters, the house cools down very quickly. In this case, you have to think about isolating the roof. It could save you around £100 a year, just by using 270mm to 300mm thick material.

3. Pay by Direct Debit

This is a clear win-win situation as you will save time, money, it is easier, faster and you will never miss any payments of your bills. Companies can give you up to 10% discount when you set up a direct debit to pay your bills.

4. Invest in an Electricity Meter

It is surprising how, in our daily routine, we tend to forget about electricity - only the receiving the bill remind us that we must be more careful. How often do you leave the light on without being in a room? Do you always think of turning off the standby electrical items at night? These things are matter but it is really hard to keep an eye on them as you have nothing to track your electricity consumption.

Investing in an Electricity Meter will help you monitoring your consumption on a daily basis, and learn to spot bad habits and unuseful expenses. You can find Electricity Meters on Amazon, usually from £30. If you are not currently aware of where your electricity bill comes from, this investment should have a positive return.

5. Use an Energy Saving Kit

Let's face it, we always leave our TV, DVD player, cable box etc on standby. It almost impossible to remember this, but do we really know how much it costs to leave all these items on standby every night?

A simple solution to this is to buy an Energy Saving Kit, and put a timer on your plug socket. The timer can be set to save energy during the day while you are at work, and also at night while you are sleeping. These kits are easy to find pretty much anywhere (around £25 at Amazon). It is estimated that almost 10% of you electricity consumption comes from standby items. Therefore, an Energy Saving Kit could quickly pay for itself.

6. Don't fill your kettle completely

Kettles are very consuming devices as they require huge amount of power to get water boiling in a few seconds. Therefore, it is important that you do not fill it up completely every time you are making yourself a nice cup of tea. An idea is to use the cup you are going to use to measure the quantity of water required. This way, you could avoid your kettle to boil quantity of water up to 8 times what you actually needed.

7. Hang your Clothes

Winter time does not always help, but hanging your clothes outside, or even having a small hanger in your house, is a good way to save electricity. Do not use your tumble dryer, and get your clothes some fresh air! Soon, this will be part of your routine and you will even be able to sell your tumble dryer - getting some money in by saving on energy. Drying clothes inside your house can take a bit longer, but at least, you will not damage your precious T-shirt, or get any nasty surprises like looking at the elastic of your brand new underwear...