With the sun finally putting in an appearance for the summer, your heating bill might be the last thing on your mind. But now is precisely the time to prepare for your winter bills. Household energy costs have soared this year by around £130 a year to more than £1,000 and further increases are expected. So what can you do to counteract these rises?
There are two main things you can do to save money on energy bills. One is to use less energy; the other is to pay less for it. One of the easiest ways to cut down on usage is to get decent insulation. Without it, you could be losing “as much as 15% of your heating costs through your roof”, says Emma Lunn in The Guardian. And if you sort it out now in the summer months, you may even save a pound or two as there is less demand.
As for paying less – you still have time to switch supplier before the next round of price hikes, but be quick. All the major energy suppliers are now whacking up their rates to compensate for higher wholesale gas and electricity prices. British Gas hiked its prices by 35% for gas and 9% for electricity on Wednesday and it’s only a matter of time before the rest do too. So now is the time to shop around (use a comparison website, such as www.uswitch.com).
If you can, get yourself a capped rate – one that won’t rise for a set time. As Laura Starkey on Fool.co.uk points out, it “is likely to cost you 10%-15% more than the cheapest uncapped deal in the short term”, but it seems likely that uncapped prices will rise by more than this across the year.
Even if your house is huddled in insulation and you have the best energy tariffs available, there is still more you could be doing. Get on the phone to your energy supplier and set up a direct debit to pay your bills monthly. About a quarter of people still pay their bills every three months by cheque and energy firms punish them for it by charging the largest premiums. Switch to direct debit and you could save around £260 a year on a family energy bill, says The Sunday Times.
Another good idea is to get your boiler serviced now. “Low summer demand means big boiler companies are offering cheap deals,” says Martin Lewis on Moneysavingexpert.com. British Gas is offering to service boilers for £49 before 15 August, compared to the usual £79. Better yet, Npower will service boilers for £29.99 before the end of August. Remember, a serviced boiler is a lot less likely to break down in the middle of winter, leaving you huddled under a blanket while counting the cost of the repairman’s emergency call-out fee.