THIS is How to Save Money on Your Energy Bills!

With the nationwide focus on the current energy crisis and rising energy costs for all consumers, this week’s episode aims to help as many people as possible understand and manage their home energy bills.
More than 70% of the costs of a typical household energy bill can be attributed to heating and hot water, so in this episode Imogen goes through what all the numbers mean and how they're calculated.
We also share insights from an industry expert on what small measures everyone can make to keep their usage, and the costs, under control.
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[@ike2k4]

Shivering is quite a cost effective way to save on gas bills, I’ll have slimmed down perfectly for the beach by the time it warms up again

[@Naultarous]

I really like the shows that Imogen does. Far to often presenters come of as knowing something that I don't and it feels like pretentious preaching. Imogen's delivery always feels like she does actually know the topic and is presenting as helpful info we can try. Not YOU MUST DO or you're a bad person. Always given as options backed up by real facts. Thank you for being awesome.

[@spikewalker6690]

I was getting very disillusioned with the main Fully Charged channel. But I'm very happy with the direction the Everything Electric channel is taking. Real world, real use, not more mega-bucks cars, houses and technology that most of us will never afford. More. Of. This!

[@gigabyte2248]

Some energy suppliers provide time-of-use electricity tariffs. They can be a good way to save money on washing, drying and EV charging, as the overnight rate can be less than a third of the day rate (which is usually slightly higher). If you are considering any changes to your house, remember the retrofit industry's motto: fabric first. Ensure that the building is waterproof, eliminate draughts and ensure wall and loft insulation is up to snuff. Heat pumps are being talked up a lot, but the cheapest energy is still the energy that you don't use. If you can't afford a professional solution, consider exploring homebrew options (e.g. masking tape along draughty window seals). As mentioned in the video, turning down radiator circulation temperature can greatly improve the efficiency of the system. If you're struggling to get the building warm enough, make sure that the thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) are opened wherever practical - it's more efficient to have a low flow temperature and a high flow rate. I hope to see more change and more support for home improvement from central government. Insulation is key to reducing our energy and fossil fuel consumption. The price of electricity in the UK is being kept artificially high, due to outdated market pricing regimes, and reform is desperately needed to make sure heat pumps (the more efficient solution) deliver the lower total cost of ownership, compared to gas boilers, that they are truly capable of. As we've seen with electric vehicles, once the total cost of buying and running the thing is cheaper, adoption will take off, prices will fall and adoption will keep accelerating until better technology is widespread.

[@samspencer7765]

Remember one of the most effective ways you can save the average person money on their energy bills is to vote out the current government who've ignored even the CEOs of oil and gas companies who said they should pay more windfall tax.

[@zombiestyled]

That's not the answer though is it

[@andymccabe6712]

@@zombiestyled problem is, a lot of people naïvely think that changing the government will make their problems to away! ...it hardly ever does - and, of course, it brings new problems to the table......!! It pays to remember that Labour couldn't get elected 'til it became New Labour (Conservative light!)...and look what happened when Jeremy Corbin tried to take us back to the seventies(Labour wipeout - in case you've all forgotten....!) .....soo...be careful what you wish for! 'anything's better that the current bunch' usually turns out to be NOT the case ......!

[@andymccabe6712]

...you're dreaming if you think a windfall tax will reduce your energy bills...we need the cash to fill the 'black hole' ...!!

[@zombiestyled]

@@andymccabe6712 it's also worth noting that not one of our 650 MPs has an answer. Not one of them questions the current energy market arrangement. Not one of them questions why gas sets the price, or that we are virtually energy independent, and that means nothing under the current system. Simple answer would be to decouple the market, and set a decent price cap linked to usage. Which would encourage user and supplier to seek greener energy, and consumer energy reduction. No MP has suggested that.

[@Nikoo033]

@@andymccabe6712 out of the £35 billions that form that black hole in UK’s yearly income, the vast majority comes from lost tax revenues due to the decrease in trade with the EU because of Brexit. Source: UK Office of Budget Responsibility 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@weeblewonder]

This is great advice! Always good to have nice bytesized informative videos. As a renter in a house with a 40 year old plumbing. Boiler, radiators, gas fireplace. I've resorted to using a portable air conditioner with a heat pump to try and just keep the living space bearable. Landlords area huge part of the problem of this energy crisis.

[@WindyJAMiller]

A very over simplified response, you are free to move elsewhere.

[@charlesmarsh9608]

Well done.

[@johndavies6246]

You should have qualified that by adding 'some' before landlords. We have two houses that we rent out as my wife's pension. After a lifetime of hard work and at 71 I've only just fully retired. ( Don't even talk to me about our future re-mortgage costs after Liz Truss's fiasco!! Yes, we can put the rent up by £100 pm, but it will cost us £230 pm for the next 5 years.) We've just had a tenancy change and have just completely redecorated the house, checked out and replaced anything iffy including the boiler. That may help us in the future against repair bills, but it will also help the tenant with cheaper running costs and utility bills, plus more control over their heating and hot water. We have also installed reflective foil behind radiators against outside walls. Every action helps. Don't generalise with your insults, think first. We get tired of getting lumped in with every bad landlord around - yes they exist, but they are not universal.

[@bimblinghill]

Sounds like a good approach - should be around 3x as efficient as a basic electric heater. Also, ignore the salty responses from landlords who don't like to hear the hard truth.

[@nevadatan7323]

​@@WindyJAMillertell me you're a landlord without telling me you're a landlord 😂

[@johnsamsungs7570]

If you turn off things at the wall you will save money because a lot of things these days are on standby mode. This is to save you from waiting half a second before it turns on. The TV, microwave and some other things use electricity when they are turned off. Just turn it off at the wall!

[@maxvaessen]

Another interesting topic is how to optimise heatpumps for the homes they’re in. I found during research that over 150 newly built homes with heatpumps are all configured to run far hotter then is needed. This is wasting a lot of energy

[@martyndavies1482]

Is that the temperature of the heated water? What is the ideal temp?

[@maxvaessen]

@@martyndavies1482 yes, the flow temperature aka the temp that comes out of your indoor unit and goes to your floor heating etc. The ideal temp depends on your conditions. There are videos on YT explaining how this works. I set mine (for room heating only) to the lowest possible setting combined with a compensation curve and tested whether it was able to keep the home at the set temperature. When it doesnt, increase the flow temp a bit and repeat till you get the right mix. Heat pumps are most efficient when running on low speeds. Another thing to consider is when you run your legionella program. Most pumps are configured to run during the night. But when you have solar it makes little sense to run that at night. In addition, heat pumps work far better when its hotter outside. Usually it’s colder at night, so there’s that :)

[@bimblinghill]

@@martyndavies1482 The answer isn't quite as simple as 'here is the ideal temperature' - The temperature of the water coming out of the heat pump itself is the 'flow temperature'. It can be anywhere from 25 to 60deg C. The cooler this is while still heating the house, the more efficient the heat pump is. This is why ideally a house with a heat pump will be well insulated and have underfloor heating or lots of radiators, because this gives a lot of area to emit heat so the water temperature can be relatively cool and still heat your house. The ideal temp is therefore the lowest you can go without being cold. The heat pump settings will have a 'weather compensation curve' which sounds more sophisticated than it normally is. The curve is a line between 2 points - one defines the mild weather setting and the other defines the cold weather setting. The mild weather setting sets a flow temp for maybe 15degC outside temp which may be 35degC flow temp. The cold weather setting for maybe -3degC outside sets a flow temp of maybe 50degC. What all these actual temperatures are depends on the product and also how it was set up by the installer. If you think you could live with a lower flow temp, see if you can adjust it, if not mention it to the service engineer next time they visit.

[@caterthun4853]

Have you a heated bathroom mirror. Ours was on all the time. It's only 70 watt. Does not look much use.. I was wrong. Sum its 0.07 kw x 24hrsx 365 days x 0.31p/kw. That's £190 Not all mirrors heating are on all the time. Some only when lights on. Suggest check...

[@kennethstealey1311]

As an old person living in an old house, I don't have a thermostat. The gas fire is either on or off.

[@tinrobot1746]

Congratulations on the new channel. Dan's previous videos and Imogens latest ones are really good and you couldn't have timed things better. The fact the UK has such poorly insulated housing stock is disgraceful, we are literally frittering money away. Keep up the great work

[@uknick]

Why did you use an example of five 100w incandescent bulbs? VERY few homes have these old bulbs these days and most of us are now using LED which use a fraction of the energy and really aren’t an issue in the grand scale of things. The consequence of using that example is to sustain the preconception that lights are bad and should be turned off - this is particularly true for the elderly. You could have avoided this confusion by making the comparison of incandescent vs LED bulbs thereby putting those who have swapped mind at rest and encouraging any folk who haven’t to switch.

[@andymccabe6712]

Yep - It WAS a poor example for all the reason you stated... !!

[@zapfanzapfan]

Yeah, 100 W bulbs are museum pieces now.

[@klaxoncow]

In fact, incandescent bulbs are illegal to sell now. (Mind you, this was an EU law. So now that the UK has Brexit, it might be set on fire by Jacob Rees-Mogg, along with pointlessly imposing imperial measurements again. But the UK was in the EU at the time of its introduction, so it is currently also UK law.) Go to your local Tesco branch and try to find an incandescent bulbs. You can't. They're actually illegal to sell now.

[@MatthewBayard]

The mindset of leaving something small on for a long period can make a big impact to your bill.

[@PerdixDesignLtd]

This was about understanding the bill and 100 makes for simple maths. Swapping them out for low energy bulbs is a very valid, but different point

[@frejaresund3770]

I have been enjoyed, so thank you for delivering.

[@petesplaneta9340]

Great clear explanations. It’s surprising as to how many people don’t understand something that’s so important.

[@MrRawMonkey]

I am using 52% less gas than in 2019, where I have complete daily records. This is achieved by running the central heating at 50C instead of 65C with a thermostat set at 18.5C instead of 20C. Hot water is reduced from 60C, where I had to add cold to just 42C. The old 42kw Combi boiler has been replaced by a 32kW Combi that although offers similar efficiency better matched the size of the home plus it modulates better. I also have smart controls operating the boiler. Electricity consumption is reduced by 32% by switching items off from the socket and changing eco settings. Also we try to use the oven less. Despite the cutback my energy consumption for the week ending 19th November 2022 still cost £48.00 for 7 days of consumption😢

[@johndavies6246]

Your hot water setting might be a little low, most recommend a minimum of 50, however, if you have hot water cylinder storage, Which? state :- "If you have any kind of boiler with a hot water cylinder that stores water for later use, a minimum water temperature of 60°C within the tank is recommended to quickly kill Legionella bacteria. ". There's more to think about than just temp/cost.

[@bikeman123]

@@johndavies6246 Legionella is pretty unlikely if the house is occupied.

[@mayflowerlash11]

Is it just me who confuses kW and kWh. This is how I remember. kW is the rate of energy flow. The kWh is the total energy consumed over a period of time ie 1kWh is 1kW flowing for 1 hour. Hope this helps.

[@PeterJFlower]

Did you know that a kilowatt (kW) is the same as a kilojoule per second (kJ/s). So a kWh is 3600 kj/s or 1kj/s/h! Now I'm really confused!

[@martinweston8147]

kWh per hour 😂awesome where’s Tesla Bjorn. No need for the per hour it’s in the calculation already.

[@danielmadar9938]

Thank you

[@dxutube]

I have same combi boiler as featured so reduced rad from "e" setting 70C to 60C, even tho my plumber told me not to adjust it.

[@howardmarsh1097]

Has it made a difference? My plumber said to leave it on "e" because that's the most efficient boiler setting. 🤔

[@Nikoo033]

Having a smart meter and an IHD are useful to evaluate the energy consumption by all your appliances and anything using electricity. Basically, once you’ve insulated your house and prevented any draught, in order to save money, you have to reduce the time you use anything that has a resistor, or simply avoid it possible (e.g toaster, kettle, oven, dish washer drying step, high temp on the washing machine). TV is quite bad too, so if not watching, turn it off. Now, what the IHD has taught me is that when your boiler heats up water, it not only burns gas, but also uses 180W of electricity to pump that water into your heating system… so yes, 42deg for hot water and 50-56deg as temperature for the water going into your heating system are largely sufficient and you’ll save money.

[@PeterJFlower]

Excellent video, good advice. Lovely to see Jo again. I have an old gas boiler and a hot water cylinder (not a combi-boiler). I also turned my boiler flow temperature to minimum, and I set the programmer to heat the hot water for only one hour a day. This makes my hot water cooler but not enough to be a problem. Once a week I turn the boiler up for one hot water heating cycle just to pasterise the hot water to prevent bugs. I also wear a lot of clothes and keep the house around 16'C. I'm guessing that Imogen has a warmer house as she is wearing a nice tee shirt, but maybe she's tougher than she looks.

[@JohnMcKillop]

*_Nice one Imogen... very helpul information made easy to follow..._*

[@grahamcastle8189]

Wel done, we need more advice like this it's just a pity that most people in desperate need of assistance probably don't have IT or Internet access to vue the video. My smart meter reader never shows the correct tariff and as such is as much use as a chocolate hammer, Instead I use rhe "Bright" app, it's always up to date tariff wise and is easy to use. Can I suggest that you do further videos on comparative means of heating a room/whole house.

[@James_Ryan]

4:45 If that old TV that uses 210W is due for replacement and you can afford it, consider replacing it now for one that uses

[@chow-chihuang4903]

How does an LCD TV use 210W? That’s on the scale of a plasma set! Considering what’s on the market today, if you’re willing to forgo the higher dynamic range, contrast and viewing angles of OLED, LED-backlit LCD TVs use the least amount of electricity. My 46in uses only 11-24W, depending on the brightness setting. To be fair, it doesn’t have a streaming service built into. They’re also less expensive to purchase.

[@BooBaddyBig]

If you only run them full, dishwashers typically use much less energy and water than washing by hand, and usually generate a lot less humidity.

[@VictoryHand]

These videos have some pretty usefull info but I do wish more was focused on what we can do tips rather than such a big emphasis on "It's cheeper to keep yourself cold than it is to heat your house to a reasonable temperature." Unfortunately I live in a really old building and heating is the biggest expense no doubt. I just feel there's nothing I can do about it unfortunately. We do have a very modern boiler at least and thermostat.

[@rodden1953]

They need to bring back FITS i get them for my old panels but not for the extra ones i added so my neighbours are getting power from me but paying for it to their energy supplier. This Government are doing their best to discourage people from fitting solar . so many new homes with no solar panels on them .

[@showme360]

Eccept in Wales, all new builds now have to have solar!

[@computerbob06]

Every roof top in the land (UK and the world) should have solar on it, also a small battery (grid linked) in the property as well! The government could provide an interest free loan for them and get the money back on an individuals standing charge. If you send the equal amount of electricity to the grid that would cover that standing charge, you never lose money to pay for the solar! Easy!

[@rodden1953]

@@showme360 Yes that estate Robert visited near Cardiff was fantastic

[@rodden1953]

@@computerbob06 I totally agree with you, it wouldn't be noticed on a mortgage for a new home . buying in bulk would bring down the price too .

[@WindyJAMiller]

PV doesnt need FITs, at current prices PV pays for itself. Incentives are for technologies that are not self supporting. The PV industry is almost as busy as it was at the peak of the FIT times 10-12 years ago.

[@kennethstealey1311]

This was very interesting, I look forward to more like this. So, hot water bottle in a blanket on your lap or a small blower heater? An electric blanket or not?

[@bimblinghill]

Hot water bottles are an amazingly efficient way of warming yourself up as a very high proportion of the heat transfers directly into you through contact. Much more efficient than a blower heater, which sends heat all round the room. However, as Imogen says, mould is a real danger so you will almost certainly need to heat the room sometimes.

[@douggray169]

Great advice

[@flamingstag2381]

I wonder is it cheaper to make a cup of tea with the microwave as opposed to the kettle ?

[@truenorthjess]

It would depend. Only an electric plugin kettle is close to 100% efficient, stovetop kettles aren't. Microwaves are also not 100% efficient, but you are only heating the water that you use, kettles minimum is usually more than 1 cup so you are using energy to heat water that you aren't using. If you are boiling more than double the water that you use then a kettle might be slightly less efficient I think.

[@zapfanzapfan]

I think if you make 20 cups you use 1 kWh (one cup in the microwave for 3 minutes), so you would have to have a serious tea-drinking problem for it to matter on the electric bill 🙂

[@klaxoncow]

@@zapfanzapfan We're British, good sir. Of course we have a serious tea-drinking problem. It's mandatory.

[@zapfanzapfan]

@@klaxoncow Ha, ha, but of course! 🙂

[@Nikoo033]

Just look at your IHD if you have a smart meter installed. You will see: for one cup, microwave, definitely. Even on high.

[@HugoGrimmett]

What on earth is happening in the graph at 5:13? Why is £139 (Fridge freezer post Oct 1st [red]) shown higher than £226 (Tumble drier pre Oct 1st [blue])?

[@Nikoo033]

Instead of energy independence, in the UK you can buy yourself 460W mono solar panels at £250/panel and a micro-inverter at £100 on eBay. Just plug 1-2 of those panels and inverter to a socket of your house directly and you will have a nice and easy solar system. Your house will be using the electricity produced by the panels before using that from the grid. Any excess gets exported to the grid, you won’t get paid for it, but who cares. Just with one of those panels, you will make a decent impact on your bills (20-30% decrease). DIY solar system for the poor 😂 but it’s all over KZbin and it works…

[@bikeman123]

9:10 many houses don't have combi boilers. What's the advice for us?

[@peteglass3496]

Still run your boiler temperature as low as you can while remaining comfortable. This improves its efficiciency a small amount although not a big difference. When it gets colder again in January you may have to raise the boiler temperature to keep up the heat supply to the radiators. If you are able to switch a single rad to a double one [increasing the surface area of your rads] in important rooms then you can run the whole system at a lower temperature and begin to make the house 'heat pump ready' when you finally have to replace the boiler.

[@jamielawrence2197]

Just want to say you are fighting a loosing battle i got told my meter was an of peak meter! So im like thats good ? They change it anyway and now am paying a fortune total shocking

[@jeffhgv]

The less energy we use, the more energy companies raise the daily standard charge and prices.

[@dxutube]

4:44 hrs per hr...so just watts

“You will own nothing and be happy”…. My ass. We are going back to stone age

[@davidsworld5837]

energy companies not given people the £400 energy money they were not paying every one the £67 they were meant to get Oct and Nov. I got £20 my mother got £40 each month. I only buy the lowest watt items. and have LED low energy bulbs. I still would like to know the amount of energy this £3000 house uses. my yearly bill is around £150

[@bikeman123]

You're in for a shock. Even a small flat will use a lot more than £150 heat and elec a year. Regarding the £67 per month, I would be either credited your account or if your direct debit is too high it would be credited back to your bank.

[@ferkeap]

The green energy contracts dont magical make more green energy, be careful of that green washing. Energy independence is not a homeowner issue. Unless you go off grid, don't for a house. Independence is for the total grid you are in, GB, and the capacity of production and capacity of source/fuel. GB is over depended on gas for electricity. And all energy fossil imports aren larger.

[@James_Ryan]

You still receive bills by post? 😲

[@nettlesoup]

Fair point. Crazy though it sounds though, some organisations (e.g. banks) refuse to carry out identification/address checks without copies of your latest bills from two different providers, e.g. Council Tax and Water. So there may be good reasons to keep at least one or two bills on snail mail. Although you can print out colour PDFs and get away with it, that gets costly if you don't have a home colour printer to make it look official.

[@Eb3nez3r]

Thank you Captain Obvious.

[@jessfulbright9015]

Don't worry Brits, just buy an electric vehicle, a home solar array and a windmill. You will be fine until you run out of food.

[@Petbacteriadotcom]

Comment about mold and damp is wrong. Cold temperatures do not cause mold.