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Cut your bills to pay for your luxuries!

At the moment we're cutting back on the luxuries so we can afford our bills. Now it's time to cut back on our bills to afford our luxuries!

My easter present from mum was a little unusual this year, but I love it. She got me Ideal Home magazine, which is full of really expensive design ideas that I will be copying for half the price, and interesting articles that led me to todays blog.

They have a wonderful article on Oliver Heath - a TV presenter who completely remodeled his house to be as eco friendly as possible. I'm not suggesting you go to quite the effort he has, spending £440,00 to buy the house and a further £130,000 in refubishment (!) but there are steps you can take that don't empty your bank account. Oliver estimates that it will take just 10 years to make back the refurbishment money with the savings he will make, which is incredible. If he can make back £130,000 in 10 years then we're all capable of making some pretty hefty savings ourselves with the right steps.


You need to start with the most obvious thing: changing your habits. Being green is a lifetime goal, not an instant save. Think of each habit you change as saving you 5p every time you remember. Add in just 1 habit a day and you'll only save £18.25 a year, but add 3 habits a day and you've saved £54.75!

Do you leave the door open when you take the bin out? Or leave lights on in various rooms even when no one is in them? How about leaving the shower running for 5 minutes to 'warm up' while you're getting ready? I'm not suggesting you lock yourself out of the house, sit in the dark and take a cold shower in the morning. That would be my worst nightmare! But pull the door almost closed, flick the light off when you'll be out for more than a few minutes and only leave your shower running the 30 seconds it needs to warm up before getting in.

Other ideas include keeping the doors in your house closed, only boil the water you need, switch things off instead of standby, don't leave things plugged in if you're not using them. All of these suggestions don't sound like they add up to much, but over the course of a year you'd be surprised.

Next you move on to simple solutions; conserve your heat and save water. A quick run down shows what you can do and how much you will save per year:

Seal drafts around doors, windows and loft hatches: £55

Insulate your hot water cylinder with a 75mm jacket: £40
Switch an old boiler to an A-rated condensing boiler: £100-£300
Fit a low-flow shower head: £90 (based on water-meter bills for a household of 4)

Swap incandescent lightbulbs to fluorescents: £55+ over the bulbs' life.
Swap a 70W halogen bulb with a 6W LED light: £70 over its' life.
It doesn't sound like much, less than £5/year saved on a lightbulb. But think of the bigger picture; most people will have 10-20 bulbs in their house as a conservative figure. That's £50-£100/year!

Insulate your loft to 270mm thick insulation and you can save £175/year. Add cavity wall insulation into the equation and you'll add a further £135/year. (based on a 3-bed semi detached house)

The final and biggest step is to start generating your own energy. This is where it gets a little complicated, so I'll be devoting another blog to that one!

So there you have it, some quick and painless steps to make your house more energy efficient. What habits will you be changing? Write them in comments below and we'll all try them together!

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