Many people of all ages have struggled to afford to heat their homes for a long time. Then along came the cost of living crisis and now we’re all neurotic about using power! So with fuel bills going up faster than the speed of light, here are some ideas for you to save money and keep warm in winter.
Along with another page ‘Look after the Pennies’ Visit Fylde Coast first wrote part of this article years ago. We’ve updated it and added some more tips. We’re not experts by any means – it’s just common sense stuff that we’ve picked up along the way. If you’ve got anything at all to add to this (or correct), please let us know. Add your ideas in the comments below, or email to jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk
Ways to Save Money in Winter
Without anything to protect us from the full-on westerly winds it’s even colder here on the Fylde coast than it is inland. It set us off thinking about how you could save some money and make sure that you don’t freeze any more than you have to. A lot of it’s obvious, but a little reminder never hurt anyone…
Bigger Tasks Around the House
The first and most obvious thing to look at is how your house is warmed and insulated. These are the bigger things that take a bit of organising and cost more money upfront. But it’s important to make sure you’re getting the most value out of the fuel you burn and the heat you’ve paid for.
Cavity wall insulation can be installed either for free or at a small cost with one of the grants that are often available from energy companies and local authorities. It really does make a difference. It keeps the heat inside your house and therefore you need to add less extra heat to keep warm.
Ditto loft insulation – it’s like putting a hat on your house! Since hot air rises it stops your precious heating escaping through the roof (along with your gas bill!)
Lynne de Lacy suggested a caveat: The property must be properly assessed for suitability and the insulation installed by a reputable company so choose your installer wisely. There must also be adequate ventilation, otherwise you could be left with damp and mould.
Double glazing – a substantial initial cost to outlay, but pays you back in time and makes winter far more pleasant.
Boilers and Bills
Central heating and hot water – make sure they are in good working order. User timers and thermostats to regulate both the temperature and your bills!
Got an old boiler? Is your central heating boiler old and inefficient? Again, there are sometimes grants available to replace these things, but if you don’t qualify you might just be stuck with smoking billy. (All joking apart, make sure it is serviced and safe. Carbon Monoxide, given off by faulty gas appliances, can be a killer).
Get financial support – make sure that you are getting all the benefits to which you are entitled. Including grants to make home improvements and keep your house warm and insulated. Give your local council a ring to check.
Check your tariff – make sure that you are on the best tariff from your energy company in order to cut your bills down.
A Bit of DIY
If coughs and sneezes spread diseases, then draughts and breezes spread cold and freezes! Seriously, how many breezes are blowing around your house? There’s no point in pumping expensive heat through your home if cold gales are blowing in all directions.
Take a trip to the DIY or poundshop and you can pick up everything that you’ll need, quite inexpensively. Tubes of silicon and a gun to apply it with and sticky backed insulation tape/draught excluder. For any big spaces you might need a tin of expanding foam.
It’s exactly what we did in our own living room – hunting out the cracks and crevices where breezes blew. Windows and doors move over time and if they don’t fit squarely and snugly it leaves the tiniest of gaps for air to come through. Sometimes the pvc trim around windows hides a multitude of sins. Take it off, see if any gaps need filling underneath it and then replace. It’s definitely made a difference for us – and we’ve still got more to do!
Small Things to Make a Big Difference
You’ve done all the obvious stuff, so what’s next. There’s a whole raft of energy saving ideas that really do add up.
- Keep doors and windows closed – to reduce draughts and keep the warm air inside.
- Close the curtains at night – it makes a surprising difference – cutting down on draughts and insulating the cold glass from the warm room.
- Curtains above a radiator? Put them behind the radiator so the heat comes into the room, not up the back of the curtain.
- Use low energy light bulbs – in winter your lights might be on from 4pm until maybe 11pm – every night. That’s 7 hours a day x 7 days a week, x several months = a lot of money.
- Turn the central heating thermostat down by 1 degree and turn the radiators off, or down, in rooms you don’t use.
- Turn the lights off when you leave a room.
- Don’t leave the hot tap running unnecessarily. Put less water in your bath. Share the bath water!
- Set a time limit on showers. If you need to, buy a kitchen timer!
- When you make a brew only boil the water that you need. How many times a day does your kettle go on?
- People who use free-standing oil filled radiators swear by them as being much more efficient than a fan heater – and retain their heat too. (Fan heaters gobble electricity – use sparingly!)
Save Money on Cooking
We all need to eat to keep warm and well – you might not want to go to a cold kitchen for food but it’s vital that you have regular hot drinks and hot meals. They will keep you warm from inside and provide energy to keep your body warm between meals. And when you get into the kitchen there are all kinds of things you can do to save energy while cooking.
Lynne de Lacy also shared some foody-tips to help to keep you warm and toasty:
- Porridge ! My gran used to swear by porridge to give you a good warming start to the day.
- And home made soup – in slow cooker or on stove top. Make the biggest batch you can and then freeze portion sizes to use as and when. Home Bargains used to sell clever reusable soup bags. And serve the soup in a mug so it also warms your hands.
- Poundland sell packs of cooked chicken pieces for just £2 – you might need to sort through the packs to avoid getting just legs! But it’s great for soup, pies curries etc etc and a great bargain instead of firing up the oven to cook a chicken.
- Creative use of microwaves can save money – seek out proper recipes rather than just heating things up.
Make good use of your Oven
If your meal includes something that takes a while in the oven, why not accompany it with roast potatoes and veg? That way you can avoid putting an extra ring on the hob to boil a pan.
We were shocked to discover just how much it costs to run an ordinary oven – there’s a table of running costs below. So while your oven is on, fill it full and use it to batch cook or make multiple things at once. Oven bake a pudding, cook something for tea, make more than one meal and freeze something for later. Just fill that baking cavity and get your money’s worth.
You can also turn the oven off a few minutes before cooking time is up. Leave the door closed and the heat inside will continue the cooking process. It’s something you can also do with the hob – turn the ring off a few minutes before cooking time is up.
Then, when your meal is ready, leave the oven door open and its heat will warm up the kitchen. A hot oven door is also a great place to dry your kitchen towels!
Or Invest in a Gadget
There’s any number of kitchen appliances that you can invest in to make cooking easier and quicker. If you buy lots of them that only do one thing, bear in mind that you’ll need to store them all!
You can get steamers, slow cookers, pressure cookers and air fryers. Plus loads of other nifty cooking gadgets that are ideal for meals for single people and couples. With them you can avoid putting a huge oven on to warm up a small meal. For example a countertop hotplate and oven. They all use less electricity than a standard oven and cook food in a shorter time.
If you’re due to replace your microwave consider a microwave combined with an oven. The machine isn’t much more expensive and you’ll save a bomb on running costs.
All-in-one cookers combine steam, pressure, bake, grill, air fry and more, all in one gadget for smaller electricity bills. The other beauty of them is that you can scratch-cook easily with them. Tasty and nutritious homemade food is cheaper and more nutritious than the processed ready-made alternative. For example, homemade soup from a few bits of root veg only takes 10 minutes. It’s also much cheaper than buying tins if you’re feeding a few people.
Instead of luxury gifts at Christmas, why don’t you ask your family to buy you something like this which is practical?
How to work out running costs for an Electric Appliance
Electricity is sold by the kilowatt-hour (kWh) – usually referred to as ‘units’ on your electricity bill.
You can work out how much an appliance costs to compare one with another.
Multiply its wattage by the amount of time it’s on and then by the cost of electricity.
As a rule of thumb, appliances with moving parts or which produce heat use much more energy than ones that produce light or sound. So if you want to save electricity, the big savings don’t lie in turning off digital clocks! Most household’s electricity bills come from running appliances like washing machines, dishwashers and electric showers.
When buying kitchen appliances always look out for the energy efficiency rating and buy one with the best rating that you can. It will make a surprising difference to the running cost. Most shops will give you plenty of advice about what to look for.
Average Costs of Average Gadgets
These are average power costs for average appliances – you’d need to work out exactly how much energy your own use. But it’s a handy comparison of where the power hungry gadgets are in the home – and what to switch off! Costs are based on a unit price for electricity of 34p per kWh (average direct debit rate) which is the price cap after 1 October 2022 as announced by the government on 12 September. Information taken from Centre for Sustainable Energy.
| Appliance (with average power rating) | Cost per hour | Cost per 10 mins |
| Electric shower (9000 W) | £3.06 | 51p |
| Immersion heater (3000 W) | £1.02 | – |
| Kettle (3000 W) | – | 17p |
| Tumble Dryer (2500 W) | 85p | 14p |
| Electric heater (2500 W) | 85p | 14p |
| Oven (2100 W)** | 71p | – |
| Washing machine (2100 W) | 71p | – |
| Oil-filled radiator (2000 W) | 68p | 11p |
| Hairdryer (2000 W) | – | 11p |
| Hob (2000 W) | 61p | 10p |
| Grill (1500 W) | 51p | 9p |
| Iron (1500 W) | 51p | 9p |
| Toaster (1000 W) | – | 6p |
| Microwave (1000 W) | 34p | 6p |
| Electric mower (1000 W) | 34p | 6p |
| Vacuum cleaner (900 W) | 31p | 5p |
| Dehumidifier (500 W) | 17p | – |
| Towel rail (450 W) | 15p | – |
| Plasma TV (350 W) | 12p | 2p |
| Fridge-freezer (300 W)** | 10p | – |
| Freezer (150 W)** | 5p | – |
| Fridge (150 W)** | 5p | – |
| Heating blanket (150 W) | 5p | 1p |
| Desktop computer (140 W) | 5p | 1p |
| Games console (120 W) | 4p | 1p |
| LCD TV (120 W) | 4p | 1p |
| Laptop (50 W) | 2p | – |
| TV box (40 W) | 1p | – |
| DVD player (40 W) | 1p | – |
| Extractor fan (20 W) | 1p | – |
| Broadband router (10 W) | 1p | – |
Why you Should Keep Warm in Winter
No matter how well off you are you can’t help but feel like you are burning twenty pound notes, with little to show for your cash. But it’s also important to keep warm too – especially if you’re elderly or vulnerable.
No matter whether you are young or old, we are all more vulnerable to colds, flu and infections in winter. Please have your flu jab and a Covid booster – you need one EVERY YEAR because these virus keep changing. If you’re called by your GP go and have a jab. It’s quick, practically painless and could save you a nasty illness that makes you feel very ill, or much worse. If you don’t qualify for a free one, pay the money and have one at a local chemist or supermarket. It’s worth every penny.
Keeping warm is key to keeping well, and your health could be in danger if your home falls below 14 degrees. A cold home can cause breathing problems, heart attacks, strokes, hypothermia and accidents in the home. Equally, temperatures above 27 degrees can be just as bad for prolonged periods of time.
A number of agencies can help if you or someone you know is struggling with the cold weather. Find out what help is available by ringing your local council and they will signpost you to help and advice.
Other Ways to Keep Warm
While you’re saving money it’s also really important to keep warm. Especially elderly and vulnerable people, or anyone with restricted movement who feels the cold more quickly.
Wrap up warm – even if you are inside. Lots of thinner layers will keep you much warmer than one thick one. Wool and cotton tops and T shirts are best. Fleecy synthetic fibres are excellent for keeping you warm. If you sit for a long while a shawl or blanket is lovely to snuggle into. Pop on a hat – you lose a surprising amount of heat from your head, even if you are indoors.
Keep moving too. Get up and have a walk around the house about once an hour. Do a few chores, nip to the loo, walk to the kitchen and back. The exercise will help your circulation and keep you warm. If your mobility isn’t good, wiggle your arms and legs from your chair!
Keep your home at the right temperature – your living room should be about 21 degrees and the bedroom 19. Use the timer to warm rooms up before you need them (if you’re going out, or when you get up in a morning).
Spot warmth
It might be better to buy a small heated appliance, rather than have the whole house baking at huge cost. Especially if other members of the family don’t feel the cold. If you feel the cold while watching tv, what about buying a heated throw that you can snuggle up in for extra warmth? Or a heat pad if you have aches and pains, which will soothe them while keeping you warm at the same time.
Maybe a freestanding heater would be more suitable, or a fan heater for a quick blast in a cold room. Bear in mind that electric heaters are expensive to run, so best not to use them for a long time.
At bedtime an electric blanket is fantastic for a toasty warm bed. Put it on a timer so that it’s on for just on long enough to warm the bed through and goes off when you get in. It also means you don’t need the heating on in the bedroom, which is much better for your airways and lungs too!
Other things to get you through in Winter
Some things can be done easily and quickly to make sure that you are prepared and stay safe from the risk of cold weather.
- Keep an eye on the weather forecast
- Keep a basic range of food and vegetables in the store cupboard and freezer – and don’t forget to stock up on pet food too
- Keep a couple of bottles of water to hand in case of frozen pipes
- Make sure you have a stock of all the medicines you take, including basic cold remedies and first aid cupboard things
- Keep a shovel, torch and some salt handy
- Stay inside during really cold weather. Unless you have got to go out, stay inside when the weather is at its worst. If you’ve got to go out make sure you are wrapped up with lots of layers. Wear suitable shoes too.
Make sure that you’re ready for a cold snap, but also have a think about those around you. Do you have neighbours, relatives or people in your community who are alone. Is anyone not too fit or agile, and might be vulnerable in bad weather? Why don’t you pop round to their house and just ask if they are OK or need any help.
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