YOU’LL have heard lots of energy-saving hacks as bills soar – but not all of them are true, and could be driving costs up.
Families are being clobbered with eye-watering hikes to energy bills as a cost of living crisis continues.
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Brits will have to dig deep to find another £693 for their energy bills after a new price cap was confirmed earlier this month.
The energy price cap, which comes into effect on April 1, will take the average household bill to £1,971 a year.
But costs are expected to only to keep going up.
There’s still another price cap review to go this year – it is likely that the average household bill will hit more than £2,000 a year in October.
With budgets squeezed to the max, households will want to know how to save cash.
We’ve rounded up five energy myths you should avoid though – because you could end up paying MORE for your bills.
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Myth 1 – it’s cheaper to put the heating on a low level all day
Storm Eunice has just battered the country, and with rainy gloomy weather still in place, you’ll be wanting to heat up your home.
But you might be puzzled over whether it’s cheaper to put the heating on a low level all day, or whack it up when you need it.
Uswitch energy expert Sarah Broomfield says it’s not true that putting your heating on a low level all the time will save you money in the long run.
That’s because a certain amount of heat is constantly being lost from your home – even if you have good insulation.
Having the heating on a low level is wasting a lot of energy trying to replace lost heat.
It’s better to programme your heating system so it comes on at times when you need it the most.
Myth 2 – energy saving lightbulbs aren’t worth it
You can’t buy halogen light bulbs any more – shops are no longer allowed to sell them under a shake-up launched last year.
But energy saving lightbulbs are more expensive to buy – EnergySavingTrust has previously estimated that it would cost £100 for a household to replace all their bulbs with LED ones.
But the savings could be significant in the long-term.
Homes which have LED bulbs pay £146 a year to run them, compared to halogen ones which cost £378 a year, according to research from Compare the Market.com in 2017.
Myth 3 – Turn your thermostat up, heat home up quicker
It’s another common mistake to think that turning up your thermostat by a few degrees when turning the heating on will warm your home up quicker.
People think you can then turn the heat off quicker – and save money.
But your house will heat up at EXACTLY the same speed no matter what temperature it is on.
So that means you’re just spending more money for no reason, energy expert Kevin Pratt from Forbes Advisor said.
Turning your thermostat down by one degree can save you £55 a year – so turning it up by several notches could be adding potentially hundreds of pounds more onto your bill.
Myth 4 – if I’ve turned appliances off they don’t use energy
Turning the TV off on standby doesn’t mean its not guzzling energy.
If they’re not turned off at the switch and unplugged, you’ll find they’re still draining energy.
That’s even if you’re not using them – they constantly use energy so they’re ready for immediate usage when you switch them on.
Unplug any laptop, TV, kettle and phone charges when you’re not using them to save around £30 a year.
Myth 5 – most of my heating is lost through windows
While its true you’ll lose heat through your windows, you’ll need to draught-proof other areas of your home too.
A quarter of heat is lost through the roof in an uninsulated home and about a third escapes through the walls.
Insulating your loft could save you up to £225 a year and installing cavity wall insulation could reduce energy expenditure by up to £255.
But of course, this requires you to have some cash spare to afford the works.
You might be eligible for a government grant to make your home more energy efficient, so it could be worth checking the criteria.
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