The Ebenezer Scrooge Guide to Energy Saving

Without trying to sound like the stingy character in the Charles Dickens novel most people can relate to the need to reduce our energy costs, especially those with teenagers addicted to the latest gadgets and being born without the ability to switch a light off when leaving a room.

With the almost constant rise in energy prices the vast majority of us in the UK are starting to question even switching on an electric light until it’s really dark, either that or we spend our entire day following the kids around the house switching things off all the time trying not to say “Bah Humbug”

Quick Ways to Save on Energy Bills
Remove all the bulbs from the light fittings and use the candles that are at the bottom of the kitchen draw left over from a birthday cake 10 years earlier. Okay maybe a little extreme and I’m not sure I could sleep very well knowing the kids are walking around the house with lit candles.

A safer option If you’ve not already done so is to swap all your light bulbs for the low energy counterparts, low energy light bulbs when they first came on the market where a little pricey but today even the spot light type GU10 and similar have come down to an acceptable price, shop around though as prices vary wildly. If you really want to cut down further then consider the light fittings themselves, do you need 5 bulbs in your living room, even though they all might only be 5 watts individually the total adds up to 25 watts, this could be reduced if you only had one 5 watt bulb, so either change the light fitting or remove a couple of bulbs from the lamp.

If you have an open fire then burning your kitchen packaging waste rather than buying logs or coal is a thought, the amount of heat may not be much though and many people either don’t have open fires or if they do they live in an area restricting the smoke output.

Put an extra layer of clothing on, this could be a jumper or a base layer, ladies can put tights on whilst the men could do the same a set of thermals might be seen as slightly more manly, but who’s going to know, your secret is safe with us!
Keeping doors and windows shut helps a great deal, costs nothing (Scrooge would approve) once a room is warm the last thing you want to do is let the heat escape through an open window, doors on the other hand are a little more tricky as teenagers do struggle with these, closing doors seems to be beyond comprehension, even after spending time training your teenagers they still cannot soak in the complexities of closing a door, what do they teach at school these days?

Is there a Solution to Cheap Energy Bills?
Yes and no, wrap up warm and eat cold food, remove all electrical gadgets from your house, these are all choices that could be made, doubtful as they may sound, for some people they are already heading this way. There is an alternative solution for long term low energy bills in the way of solar energy, here in the UK the government has pledged to buy back any energy you produce for the next 25 years at the current rate of 41.3p per Kw. Whilst initial setup costs of installing Solar energy systems for your home are never going to be cheap this government backed “Feed in Tariff” really does make it a long term investment worth considering.

Cheap Electricity for Next 25 Years

Here in the UK there is a government backed scheme known as the Feed In tariff that guarantees you an income from solar energy for the next 25 years.

By having solar panels installed on your roof the energy produced means you will receive 41.3p per Kw of energy produced, plus produce any surplus and receive an extra 3p per kw when you export this back to the national grid. This means any electricity you use that’s been generated via your solar panels will not only cost you nothing but you will get paid for it as well.

A typical 4KW solar power system on your home should earn you around £1500 a year, and this is guaranteed for the next 25 years!

Solar energy produced by the light from the sun is clean and efficient, solar power is produced by taking the light from the sun via solar photovoltaic panels and converting it to electricity. We already know that solar energy is environmentally friendly and now that the government has pledged to buy back the energy produced for the next 25 years installation can make financial sense.

What if you move house
Upfront costs of installing a solar power system to your home isn’t cheap but once you look at the potential returns solar power seems like a no-brainer. So let’ assume you might move house in a few years’ time, ok so you’ve enjoyed the benefits and potentially free electricity for years but can you imagine what a potential buyer of your house is going to think, the way energy prices seem to be rising buying a house with access not just to free electricity for personal use but a guaranteed income from the electricity as well. In the future we will see houses coming on to the market that already have solar panels fitted.

Technology Constantly Advancing
If we look at how fast technology has moved in recent years, take the internal combustion engine, 25 years ago engines were unreliable, in efficient and usually worn out by 100k miles, todays car engines can go for many miles between servicing and 100k miles is easy achievable and took much less fuel to cover them. You cannot talk about technology advancements in over the last 25 years without mentioning the personal computer, I used one to write this and you are using one to read it,
but look back to the days before windows existed, Amstrad and BBC Basic are museum pieces now days.

The point here is solar power will go the same way, efficiencies in the amount of electricity produced are improving all the time, build quality of the panels are so good that many are guaranteed for 20 years or more, in fact there have been solar panels in space for over 50 years and going from -160 to +200 degrees C every 90 minutes.

Solar power is here to stay, and rest assured they can produce energy even on cloudy days which is just as well if you live in the UK.