I used Martin Lewis tips and my energy bill is now £180 in credit
My house has a lowly energy efficiency rating of E and with a 20-year-old boiler threatening to break any second, I was keen to save money over the winter, writes
ENERGY prices are skyrocketing and we’re being told to watch our carbon footprint for the sake of the planet, so when I moved to an old house in September last year I used my smart meter and tried to save as much energy as possible – here is what I found.
The “heat the human” tips by money-saving expert Martin Lewis really do work, at least if you are young-ish and healthy. In total, I’m paying just under £80 a month in winter for gas and electricity combined, and when I checked at the start of May 2022 I was £179 in credit thanks to going totally overboard with energy-saving hacks.
In a nutshell, these tips to ease the cost of living were:
Use electric blankets or even rechargeable electric gloves
Layer up in warm clothes and wear slippers Eat hot meals to stay warm
Walk around and stay active
My house has a rather unimpressive Energy Performance Certificate of E. After the first cold snap, it became clear it would be nearly impossible to keep it warm. Pretty soon, I gave up, turned the heating off most of the time, and decided to accept my drafty (ahem, well ventilated) house for what it was.
Living in a cold, damp house is absolutely miserable but, for me at least, living in a cold, dry house is almost pleasant if you have the right gear. As I toughened up, I could stroll into the kitchen at 15°C and it seemed warm.
While the World Health Organisation says it is dangerous to live in temperatures under 18°C, I never slept better than when the radiator was switched off and it was 12°C in the bedroom. And historically, people did have to put up with much colder homes although it probably had a toll on their health.
In the 1970s, the average indoor house temperature was a chilly 12°C in winter according to a report commissioned by the Department of Energy and Climate Change and published in 2014. “There may have been ice on the insides of the windows, and nearly everyone accepted the need to wear thick clothes at home in winter,” the report said.
Thankfully, I never saw condensation or ice on the windows but thick clothes made from wool were certainly key to my comfort, giving a very 1970s vibe at home. Real wool is normally very expensive but I was able to pick up some bargains under £8.
Another essential weapon in the heat-thehuman arsenal is an electric blanket. I bought mine from Argos and would drape it over my knees while I worked at home instead of cranking on the old, inefficient heating system.
I also never had the hot water on and got used to washing my hands in cold water which is just as hygienic as warm water according to the NHS – but obviously, you need soap! The shower is electric and produces lovely, hot water but I limited it to five minutes a day because I saw the smart meter shoot up every time.
Drying clothes is another opportunity to save money. A little-known fact is that you can actually dry clothes on the line even when the temperature is freezing outdoors.
Your laundry might freeze solid but the ice will evaporate through sublimation. Of course, the real enemy to drying clothes outdoors in winter is the buckets of rain we get for weeks on end.
When the weather was bad, I dried the laundry on a rack in my upstairs south-facing bedroom and had the windows open as wide as possible, with the radiator off to save energy and the bedroom door shut to keep the rest of the house warm. Typically, the clothes were dry within a day without having to use any power.
In the 194 days from October 27 last year to May 9, I used 1,179.9 kWh of electricity and 4,808.5 kWh of gas. Meanwhile, a typical three-bedroom house uses 12,500 kWh of gas and 3,100kWh of electricity every year, according to UK Power.
Now it’s summer, the gas is off and I’m well on the way to achieving much lower than those annual figures. It’s not a bad result for a mostly-uninsulated house where two people were working from home all day long.
As for my actual bills, a lot of it comes down to sheer dumb luck – I moved house just before the energy price hike and was able to jump onto a cheap fixed tariff before they stopped, as per Martin’s advice. Until March next year, I pay 19.21p per kWh with a daily standing charge of 21.34p for electricity and 3.77p per kWh and a standing charge of 20.64p a day for gas.
The new energy price cap, introduced in April, is 28p per kWh for electricity with a daily standing charge of 45p, and 7p per kWh with a daily standing charge of 27p for gas. This is simply not affordable and I dread how much worse it might get in September when the energy price cap will change again.
I plan to get a combi boiler and will continue to only heat one room in winter, although I’m aware of how privileged I am to have these options. For many, winter will be a hardship difficult to bear and there has to be an intervention.
A little-known fact is that you can actually dry clothes on the line even when the temperature is freezing outdoors