With the cost of energy high on everyone’s agenda, the government is stepping in to assist homeowners and – potentially – businesses with rising prices, but there are also measures we can take ourselves to keep our bills under control.
One useful exercise is to identify the appliances which use the most energy and then to moderate their usage if at all possible. It’s important to remember that the energy price cap for domestic customers is set at an average annual usage, which Ofgem has set as 2,900 kWh for electricity and 12,000 kWh for gas, so if you use more than that you’ll pay more than whatever level the price cap is set to. Crucially, however, if you can reduce your usage you’ll spend less. And for businesses, cutting energy usage will benefit the bottom line and enhance your environmental credentials.
Several standard items will be consuming energy even when they’re not doing anything, so it’s important to identify these offenders. One way of assessing how much energy they’re likely to be using is to check how warm they feel. If they’re warm – or even worse hot – to the touch, then they’re probably using excess electricity. These items might include chargers for your phone, tablet and/or laptop, your televisions, your set top boxes and your gaming devices. While all these items continue to become more efficient in their energy usage, we now have so many of them that they’re guilty of eating up considerable amounts of energy, some of which can be saved.
If you have a smart meter, another way of auditing your appliances is either to plug in or unplug each device to see the effect it has on your usage and how much it’s costing you per hour. While this might sound labour-intensive, it can be rewarding in terms of reducing your usage and bill, especially when you consider that – on average – as much as a quarter of the electricity consumed in our homes can be by appliances that are routinely left on standby. In addition, turning off socket switches when not in use and ensuring that lights are switched off when you leave each room can also make a difference to your overall bill.
Mark Smith, owner of MS Electrical Services, specialises in electrical safety and is keen for consumers – both at home and at work – to understand more about energy usage. ‘As a society we’ve become so used to using portable devices that we can be a bit negligent around leaving them on charge or charging them when they still have battery life available,’ comments Mark. ‘As well as costing money in terms of electricity usage, changing our behaviour in this area can also prevent a safety issue regarding appliances overheating and potentially presenting a fire risk. With the rising prices of energy we’re keen to encourage everyone to review their usage, make a few changes where possible and in doing so not only provide a safer environment for their families and work colleagues, but also prolong the life of the appliance and save money at the same time.’
MS Electrical Services offers fixed wire testing and PAT testing in Cambridge, so if you’re concerned about your energy usage please contact us for advice.