Spend as little as £3 on energy tricks that could save you £200 on bills

HOUSEHOLDS are already paying through the nose for their energy bills as prices have been hiked for millions of people.

A number of energy firms have even come under fire from customers who have already spotted their bills being ramped up by as much as 80%.

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But simple money saving tricks could mean hundreds of pounds disappear from your energy bills.

Now the new energy price cap has officially been introduced, many households are facing a hike £139 in their gas and electricity bills.

There’s not much you can do to avoid the hikes, except prepare to join the cheapest tariff when you get the opportunity to switch.

The raft of rising gas prices has even affected suppliers themselves, with at least 10 having folded since August this year, including Utility Point and People’s Energy.

But you can follow these cheap home improvement tricks designed to only cost you only a few pounds to carry out, and save a whole lot on what you do have to pay in the long run.

Spend £3 to save over £200

Spend £3 draught-proofing and you could shave over £200 off your energy bills.

Draught exclusion can be a very cheap hack to cut energy costs.

Essentially what you are aiming to do is stop cold air coming in and prevent warm air from escaping, especially as many households are paying premium rates for that heat now that bills have been hiked.

Draughts or gaps around your doors and windows act as unwanted ventilation shafts.

That means all the while that you are paying for heat to fill your home, a large volume of that warmth could be escaping out of spaces you might not even realise exist.

You can counter this by using items such as draught excluders, and if you know where to look these won’t even make a dent in your wallet.

There’s a more permanent way you can eliminate the cold air sneaking in though.

DIY draught-proofing can cost you only a few pounds too, as rolls of self-adhesive draught-excluding tape start from as little as £3.

On Amazon, you can buy 10 metres of the self-adhesive seal for only £2.89.

But it’s a good idea to shop around to get the best price, and work out how much surface area you need to cover.

If you use the tape to block up gaps around windows, doors and chimneys that let cold air in and warm air out you could save around £215 on fuel over five years, according to Norton Finance’s latest data.

The Green Age also estimates you could save a little over that too, as it worked out households could save £60 a year in heating bills by practicing the small and cheap measure.

That would mean a saving of closer to £300 over the same five year time frame.

The amount you could save will depend on how draughty your house already is though, and whether you already have other preventative measures installed to stop heat escaping from your home.

Is there anything else I can do to improve insulation in my home?

Other upgrades to the home will reduce your heating bills in the long run as you won’t need to have the heating on as long or as high, as well as other measures.

Hundreds of thousands of people overpay by £246 on heating bills due to poor insulation, but you can fix that and reduce costs.

However, you may have to fork out initially to have these measures installed, and that can be a costly up-front splurge.

You can get roof and wall insulation, which works in a similar way but on a grander scale than the humble draught excluder, by stopping heat from escaping your home.

This can cost a pretty penny though, as roof insulation could cost as much as £285 for the loft of a mid-terrace house with 270mm insulation.

But according to Norton Finance’s numbers, it could save you as much as £500 on bills over five years.

Wall insulation on a mid-terrace house can cost as much as £400 too, but you could save another £500 on your bills over five years as a result of retaining extra heat in your home.

Can I get help to cover those costs?

You don’t necessarily have to splash out on the costs alone, as low-income households can make their homes more energy efficient with grants of up to £10,000 from councils.

Select councils have been given government funding to install energy saving measures for homeowners.

The money can be put toward measures like cavity wall and loft insulation, underfloor heating, energy efficient doors or the replacement of single-glazed windows. 

You’ll have to be quick to get in touch though, as many are only offering this funding until December this year.

Energy suppliers also offer grants, like EDF’s Customer Support Fund, which helps keep vulnerable customers out of debt and also covers the cost of essential energy efficient white goods like cookers, refrigerators, or washing machines. 

There are other government grants you can apply for to get money off your heating bill too, so it’s worth looking into these as households can get up to £140 cash to cover bills in some circumstances.

Low income households can get £25 a week to help with energy bills during the winter thanks to the cold weather payment scheme too, and £300 off fuel payments during the coldest months with winter fuel payments.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk