PEGGING bubble wrap to her windows and filling up a massive flask of coffee each morning are just some of the extreme money saving tricks retired mum Sue Conlan does to slash her energy bills.
The 65-year-old from Derbyshire also washes her clothes at night – and she says her impressive efforts save her £400 a year too.
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She’s one of the the millions of families are battling against eye-watering energy bill hikes, as Brits are hit by a cost of living crisis.
Families face an extra £693 for their energy bills from April 1, plus rising inflation and bills are pushing more families to the edge financially.
Sue started thinking of ways to save money when temperatures dropped this winter – and tried out a homemade solution: bubblewrap.
“My house was freezing,” she said. “I can’t afford to get triple glazing, and my double glazing is 15-years old.
“It was costing me £1,900 to heat my home – I have a conservatory at the back of the house that takes a lot to heat up.”
“I pin it to the top of my curtains with pegs – sometimes I put two sheets up in some rooms, one behind and one in front of each curtain,” she said.
“I thought it would be a good method of insulation. I was putting up another type of clear insulation over my curtains before – but it kept falling off.
“I also tape bubble wrap to the windows in the kitchen and bathroom.”
Replacing your double glazing can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds, while a roll of bubble wrap costs around £50.
Sue estimates it has saved her hundreds of pounds a year.
“Before I put the bubble wrap up, I would have my heating on at 21 or 22 degrees on, and it would hardly be making any difference – it was still cold” Sue added.
“Now, I’ve managed to turn my thermostat down by five degrees to 16 or 17 degrees.”
Before you decide to bubblewrap your curtains too, households will need to consider the potential fire risks of doing so – and keep it away from electrical items and candles.
Uswitch says you can save £55 a year by dialling your thermostat down by just one degree.
By knocking five degrees off, that means Sue is saving at least £275 a year.
“People ask me why I have bubble wrap on my curtains – but I tell them that it’s saving me hundreds of pounds on my energy bills,” Sue said.
“I’ve been passing on the tips – I tell my dog walking chums I’ve been doing it for years, and they say they’ve saved money too after I told them about it.
“It’s the best hack I’ve ever done to save on my energy bills.”
It’s not the only trick Sue does to drive down her bills.
She washes her clothes and cooks at night to make the most of savings she can make on her economy 7 tariff.
That means her provider – British Gas – charges her a cheaper rate during the night compared to during the day.
It costs her 12.32p/kWh during the night – 11.62p cheaper per unit of electricity compared to during the day, which is 23.94p/kWh.
Economy 7 tariffs can save serious cash – but there are downsides to them too, as some experts warn about the safety aspect of running your appliances at night while you sleep.
Also, it will cost you more to heat your home during the day – and if you’re not careful you could end up paying extra.
Sue weighed up all the pros and cons, and as a result she claims to save hundreds of pounds. We asked uSwitch to crunch the numbers to calculate how much she’s saving by running her appliances at night based on how much energy each one uses.
Slow cooker – £9 a year
Sue cooks up to 10 litres of stew or other meals she can bung in a massive foot and a half tall slow cooker pot twice a week.
It costs her 10p to run her slow cooker at night according to Uswitch, compared to 19p during the day.
That’s a saving of 9p everytime she uses it – which over the year, saves her £9.36.
Dishwasher – £55 a year
Setting her dishwasher to do the dirty plates overnight saves Sue nearly £55.
That’s because it costs her 16p to run on a night rate – nearly half the price of what it costs to run during the day at 31p, according to Uswitch.
As she washes her dishes everyday, that’s saving her £54.75 a year.
Washing machine – £41 a year
Sue sets her washing machine – which she uses every night – is set to an economy cycle for 35minutes five days a week.
This costs 13p per wash on a night rate, according to Uswitch – better than half the price of using the machine during day rate hours, which would cost 25p.
This saves her 12p per wash – which is £31.20 over the year.
Using the economy setting as well saves her an extra £10 a year, according to British Gas estimates.
Boiling kettle less – £23 a year
Having a cuppa will cost more than you probably think when it comes to your energy bills.
Boiling the kettle once costs 0.7p – but as Sue reckons she has around 10 hot drinks a day, that would mean that she would be paying 7p a day to get her coffee fix.
But now, she uses a big “pump pot” – which is like a big thermos flask to store your coffee or hot water in – to cut this down.
Making all her coffee in one go and keeping it in a big pot means she only has to boil the kettle once.
That’s a saving of 6.3p a day – which over the year, comes to £23.
In total, all of Sue’s energy saving hacks – from covering her home in bubble wrap to cooking at night – saves her £403.
Saving cash on her energy bills has never been more important for Sue.
She was medically retired from work in 2018, and receives a medical pension of £1,600 a month.
But that stopped at the end of this January, meaning that she’s applied for Universal Credit to get by.
She will be getting £323 a month when her first payment comes in – which is a “massive drop” in her income.
“I’m home at day, so I need the heating on. But I’m really concerned about rising energy costs,” she says.
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