How I saved over £500 on my electricity bill

We use much more electricity than we need to

Paying for electricity can be tough, especially if you have many devices plugged in constantly like many of us do. Electricity is getting more and more expensive and the average household uses almost twice as many gadgets and appliances as we did only 5 years ago. House owners are often in shock when they see their electricity bill at the end of the month and wonder why and how on earth did they use that much.

5 tips that will help you save electricity money

I am here to show you my method that I have used in the past 3 years that has saved my family over 500 pounds in three years consecutively. Before some of you come to conclusions, no I do not force my whole family to sit in front on a small television with only 1 electric heater on in the entire house. In fact we actually have 3 separate televisions and 2 computers on for an average of 5 hours a day each and yet we still manage to consume less electricity than the average UK household.

Tip 1- Turn of any blinking lights at night

Have you just finished using the computer and are heading bed? Not so fast! You just left on your computer and monitor on standby without even realising it.

Most modern computers have a ‘smart PSU’ which keep any USB’s plugged in active. So your keyboard and laser mouse will be one all night without you knowing it. Yes it may not seem like much but it does add up, trust me on that. It especially starts becoming a problem when there are things like a USB speaker and an external hard drive plugged in. That was just the computer alone, you also have the monitor to worry about.

In today’s world, monitors consume far less electricity than they used to but, like computer towers people also have a tenancy to leave them ‘on’ when going to sleep. After using the computer you will notice on your screen a small led light that may or may not be flashing. If you do, make sure you press the power button on the monitor to turn it off. If you don’t have a button on your monitor, use the old fashion method and manually switch it off from the mains sockets. Doing so can save up to 50 pounds in a year!

Finally, if you use a Power line, you may want to turn that off at night also. I found out that my power line was using more electricity than I thought. Some people recommend you turn off your router at night. This would be a good idea in theory however, some Internet service providers think your are having a problem with your phone line and would in turn lower your Internet speeds. So before turning of your router, I suggest you make a quick call and ask them if it would OK to do. From personal experience, SKY doesn't have a problem with it.

Tip 2- Don’t use your microwave as a clock

Microwaves are great for cooking food and only cooking food. Here’s a fun fact. In the course of 24 hours, microwaves will use more electricity to display the clock than to heat up your food! Crazy right? As soon as you are done cooking your favourite microwave meal, turn it off completely from the mains.

TIP 3- Close the curtains at night

This is more to do with conversing heat. If you are like me and use electric heaters, you will notice that turning the level on by even 1 step, will result in a drastic increase in electricity consumption.

Things like double glazing, triple glazing and even heat absorbing blinds are new ways to prevent heat from escaping but you can’t run away from the truth in that most of your home heat will be lost through windows no matter how much layers of glazing your windows have.

A great way to minimise the heat loss is to close your curtains completely whenever it gets dark. This will help minimise the heat lost to your windows and in turn save you money on heating.

Alternatively you can look for thermal blinds, which are specially designed to retain the heat from getting lost through the windows. They are a bit pricey but can be a good investment in the long run.

Tip 4- Don’t charge your phone overnight.

Not only can charging your phone or tablet overnight consume more electricity but is also a very dangerous safety hazard. There has been many reported instances where phone batteries have gotten so hot that they explode next to the owners face. It’s not something you want your kids exposed to. Keep them safe, don’t charge your phones overnight!

It’s very tempting to do since most phones batteries will only last a full working day with moderate use but there are solutions to concur this bad habit.

There are many chargers you can buy with an additional battery slot. These tend to charge the batteries much faster than your phone would as they only need to focus on charging the battery and not worry about things like display and notifications. However as time goes on, phone manufacturers are making their phones much more thinner, which unfortunately means that phones these days do not have a removable battery, which would make this method useless.

Another great, alternative method would be to buy a Power bank which can be bought pretty much in any phone shop. They are cheap and can be charged quickly. They range from a number of sizes from a small pocket sized one to a larger bag one. Of course they both have their advantages and disadvantages but briefly speaking, having a larger Power bank will allow you to charge your phone 7 to 10 times depending on your battery size, which means you would only need to charge the power bank once a week and be able to charge your phone daily without the need to charge your phone overnight. If your looking for a larger capacity power bank, I suggest you take a look at Ankers range which can be found on Amazon. They have good reviews and have proven to be a reliable option.

If your looking for a smaller power bank that is suitable to charge your phone once, I would suggest you look at EE’s swap service. If you own an EE power bank, they allow you to swap your power bank at any time for a fully charged one at their store. Just pop in to an EE shop and they will swap one for you. It’s a great service for someone who spends most of their day outside.

TIP 5- Use common sense.

Before going to bed today. Take a look around the house for any plugged in devices or appliances and ask yourself: Do I really need this to be on all night? You would be surprised to find out how many devices you can turn off in that 1 time, all of which can add up to a great amount of electricity saved at the end of the year.

The first time I tried it, I managed to find 4 unnecessary devices that were on standby. A microwave, a small TV in the sitting room, a phone charger and a washing machine.

That’s today’s post finished and it’s pretty much everything I followed in order to save 500 pounds last year and the years before. I hope you find it useful in anyway, if it was useful, please feel free to share it on Facebook or twitter.

Thanks and goodnight

My Green Introduction

A little bit about myself

Hello green world, my name is Jeff, I’m a 27 year old tech freak that deeply cares about the environment. I have made this blog with the intention of helping others become more green friendly, save more money and to be able to use modern day technology to achieve this.

How Technology has changed our world

Tech evolves everyday at a higher rate than anyone could ever imagine. We walk with our personal computers in our own pockets that is more powerful than any computer only 20 years ago. We can avoid car accidents with new car detection radars which was though impossible at first. With tech, anything is truly possible with time, dedication and a dream. My personal goal is to spread the message of new and up and coming inventions that has the potential to change our destructive environmental behaviour.

Unfortunately we still are facing an environmental problem with pollution, global warming and green house gasses. Hopefully in the near future for the sake of our future generations, we can get global warming under control for our future grand children to enjoy the earth as much as we have.

In my blog I will be sharing tips, tricks and guides on how you can save money at home, work or in your car which in turn will reduce things like electricity consumption, green house gasses emissions and general pollution all of which contribute to global warming. 

You will be surprised at how much money you can save each year by simply turning off your charger at night when it’s not needed, or time your heaters to turn on just before you reach your home after work saving you a great amount of money on your gas bills. All of these tips will be discussed in the up and coming months. I will be aiming to post at least 4 posts each week, but due to my busy work schedule, this could fall down to 2. Nevertheless I hope you guys have enjoyed this intro post and if any tips I shared with you are helpful in any way, please feel free to share with your friends and family so they can enjoy the benefits of becoming eco-friendly.                      

Thanks for reading