Utilita Energy rolls out tips for households to cut energy bills
Forty per cent of households are missing out on big savings in their energy bills through simple adjustments to their energy use, revealed Utilita Energy (Utilita).
The challenger supplier revealed that three measures could collectively save people £546 per year and take £5.5bn off the nation’s energy bills.
This includes reducing room temperatures by one degree (between 18-21C), using more efficient cooking appliances, and encouraging people to turn down hot water tap temperatures to 50 degrees.
Utilita has now set up free workshops to provide tips for households to reduce their energy bills through efficiency measures.
The free-to-attend 45 minute “Bill Buster” sessions will be open to the public on 10 October, and will be open for at least 12 months.
They can be watched virtually or attended in person at any of Utilita’s high street energy hubs or at a community-based session across schools and community spaces nationwide.
The sessions will be delivered by the company’s energy efficiency experts and will focus on an extended checklist of 15 simple ways to cut energy usage at home.
There will also be an additional 10 ways to make cooking and hot water use more cost effective.
Commenting on the session, Bill Bullen, founder and chief executive of Utilita said: “With the price of energy reaching unprecedented levels in recent months, this winter will be one of the worst imaginable for far too many households.
“In the absence of enough targeted support or any practical energy advice from the Government, we have taken matters into our own hands to give every household access to the information they need to make savings – no matter who their supplier is.”
Utilita’s tips follow nationwide insulation drive
The Government recently unveiled a £1.5bn energy efficiency scheme, which will see 130,000 households in England receive upgrades through the Government’s Help to Heat, which could save £400-700 a year on their energy bills.
The £1.5bn is being made available through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant schemes – which are part of the £12bn overall programme.
Insulation measures will include external wall and loft insulation, energy efficient doors and windows, and heat pumps and solar panel.
Philippe Commaret, EDF’s managing director of customers, told City PM earlier this summer he did not understand why energy efficiency was “a bad word.”
He calculated loft or cavity wall insulation could reduce energy bills by as much as £600 per year.
He noted that the average insulation age of UK homes was 1976 – making the country nearly 50 years out of date with insulation.
He said: “Nobody would have would buy a car from 1976. Nobody would continue to have a boiler that has been installed in 1976. Nobody would have a kitchen that lasts from 1976 and, still, nearly two thirds of UK households have insulation equivalent or below 1976.”