Energy bills: 2 quick wins, 1 wild idea - Checksies
✅ Checksies
Money things to read, money things to do
2 November 2022
Hello friends, this is Checksies, the newsletter that helps you do money, written by @annagoss and @rod. Housekeeping: We’ve just changed email platform, so apologies for any formatting issues, please let us know if you have any.
If you live in the UK, your energy bills have gone up a lot. (How to get advice on bills.) The new Chancellor will cap bills for the average UK house at £2,500 until April 2023. That “average UK house” bit is important: it’s the unit price of electricity that’s being capped, not your total bill. So your bill could be higher. It all depends how big your house is, how many radiators you have, what temperature you like your house at, how long you want the heating on for, and how well insulated your house is. Some of those are variables you can control more easily than others.
Here are two quick wins, one big thing and one slightly wilder thing you could do to try to control your bills.
Quick win: turn down your boiler’s temperature to save 8-10%
Have we done it?: Anna ✅ Rod ✅
Are you running your boiler at its most efficient temperature? If you have a modern condensing boiler (this includes combi boilers), they are designed to save energy by condensing water to reclaim some of the heat. But if their operating temperature is set too high, the condensation bit doesn’t work.
So go to your boiler and load this guide from Nesta on your phone which shows you how to turn the flow temperature on your boiler’s control panel down to 60. This will make the boiler run more efficiently. Leave your room thermostat at a temperature that’s comfortable for you.
You’ll save 8+% on your gas bill and don’t worry: your house should still be the same temperature. If you are in any doubt, talk to a local Gas Safe-registered plumber.
Quick win: check if you should switch energy supplier
Anna ✅ Rod ✅
Go to Money Saving Expert and read this: Is it time to fix my energy bill or should I stick on the price cap?
If it says you should switch, then consider switching to Octopus (that’s an affiliate link) - they have green credentials and seem to be a solid company. Or find an energy deal that works for you.
But for most people the best thing is to do nothing and wait because you’ll already be on a price capped deal, and these are the cheapest. (“Cheapest” lol.)
(PS: Bulb customers, it looks like you’re going to end up with Octopus anyway.)
Big win: insulate your house
Anna ✅✅ Rod ✅
If you own your own home and make it more energy efficient, it will retain heat better, reducing your bills and your emissions. In the average UK house, 25% of heat is lost through the roof. A useful general principle is “fabric first”. This means insulating your roof, walls, floors and making sure you have double glazing.
If your home has a loft and it isn’t insulated, start there because it’s the simplest place to insulate.
You can roll out loft insulation yourself (wear a dust mask and gloves if you’re using mineral wool, don’t worry if you’re using sheep’s wool). Or you can get an installer to do it for you - check if there is government support or loans in your area or for your level of household income. (But be careful about putting spray foam in your loft: it’s brilliant but many home insurance companies don’t like it.)
There are many other things you can do to your house, like solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and so on, but we’d save those until after you’re insulated.
And if you rent rather than own your home, try asking your landlord about improving insulation. Remind them that the government is thinking about pushing landlords to make all rented properties more energy efficient by 2030. Go for some quick, non-deposit-losing wins, too - try filling in any gaps between floorboards with sealant, and investigate draught excluders for external doors.
You can also look at managing your demand. We’re not going to tell you to put a jumper on, but uncle Martin Moneysavingexpert has a list of energy saving tips.
Wild idea: buy shares in a wind farm to reduce your future bills
Anna 🤔 Rod ✅
Ripple Energy is a company that makes wind and solar farm co-operatives. The idea is that you put some money in to become a part owner of the co-op. Ripple then builds the wind farm, which will sell electricity to energy suppliers. You sign up to get your electricity from one of those energy suppliers, and you get a discount on your electricity bills for the lifetime of the wind farm (25 years, ish). If the price of electricity is high (like, 2022), you’ll get a bigger discount.
Here is an affiliate link: Ripple Energy - you and we will both get £25 if you sign up with it.
We’re calling this a wild idea because you’re putting money in up front, getting a return (in the form of the discounts) over a long time, and wind farms aren’t risk-free. Rod has done this and will report back once the wind farm’s actually built in 2023.
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Disclaimer
Here’s the small print: We’re not independent financial advisors, so this is not financial or investment advice. Before spending money on financial products, you should talk to an Independent Financial Advisor. The ones you want are qualified as “Chartered Financial Planners”, and you can find one here. We’re in the UK, which means we don’t understand anything about advice, money or tax in other countries. We have biases. We hold shares in whatever Vanguard thinks is appropriate. We may also hold shares in individual companies, like our employers or organisations we find interesting. We’re trying to work out what’s best to do, just like you are. Stay safe everyone.