Energy Saving Survey

Here are some interim results from our survey on energy saving at home. If you haven't filled it in yet it is not too late; we will update this page as we go. Many of us are already keen energy savers anyway to reduce carbon but it is more important than ever now even if you can afford not to. The price increases on both gas and electricity are due to a global shortage of gas that does not come from Russia. Prices will continue to climb until global demand reduces to match supply. In the EU there are proposals for ever higher targets for energy saving by 2030 (see EU Parliament groups unite behind 14.5% energy savings goal for 2030). Individual countries are considering a range of measures to save energy including reducing heating in public buildings, reducing street lighting and even cutting hours of business (see Tariff shields and turning off lights: how Europe is tackling the energy crisis). 

Our survey includes a variety of strategies for cutting down on energy use and asks you to score yourself from 1 to 5 as to how far you have been using them. Most are widely used. The stand-out exception is turning down the radiator temperature to make your boiler run more efficiently. You can save up to 8% of space heating and it costs nothing to implement (see links below for more information). A surprising number of us are low on loft insulation too. This is a bit more of a job to install but pays back quickly.

We also asked for your tips. Here are some of them:

• Turn off heating at night and an hour or two before leaving home
• Don't run the hot tap until hot. If you don't need that much water, use cold.
• Keep a shawl or a blanket in your sitting room/space so you can use it when the evening gets colder
• Batch cook (especially when using the oven)
• Live with more people - it reduces the energy bill per person

Here are some links from the questions in the survey that you might want to get back to.

• Reducing the temperature of your radiators saves up to 8% - see The Heating Hub.
• Setting the thermostat lower is one of the most effective ways to reduce energy quickly - see Simple Energy Advice

There are lots more tips on the energy group web pages - low cost/no-cost tips here and more general advice, including using a plug-in meter and other ways to explore your appliances on our Getting Started page.