• Home
• Business
• Recession Advice

• Benefits
• Businesses
• Leisure
• Employment and Training
• Be Energy Smart
• Housing
• Managing your money
• Traffic and Transport
• Useful Recession Links

With rising gas and electricity prices, it's never too late to try and save money on your energy bills and help protect the environment at the same time.

Top tips:

• Shop around for the best deal on your gas and electric prices.
• Turning your thermostat down by one degree could cut your heating bills by 10 per cent.
• Don’t leave appliances on standby.
• Always turn off the lights when you leave a room and use energy saving light bulbs which can last up to 10 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs.
• Only fill and boil as much water as you need.
• Switch to direct debit payments and paperless billing. Energy companies will often offer discounts to those who opt to pay by direct debit.
• Take regular meter readings to ensure you don’t end paying more than you need to as most bills are based on estimated usage.
• Get an Owl Monitor which can help you understand and reduce your energy consumption.

More help and advice can be found at Energy Saving Trust or on the council's climate change page.

There are also a number of grants and discounts that can be taken advantage of which include:

• Warm Front Grants which is a government funded initiative to provide a package of insulation and heating improvements.
• Winter fuel payments available to pensioners to help towards the costs of heating.
• Cold weather payments available to:
  • People receiving pension credits, income support or JSA allowances.
  • People receiving pensioner or disability premiums.
  • People who have a child who is disabled or under the age of five years old.

--

Print