An energy expert has revealed the unusual ways to save money on your bills - including vacuuming your fridge. Emily Seymour, energy editor at the consumer magazine Which?, has shared her top tips to cut down on the electricity appliances use.
Which? has spent recent months focusing on what should the government be doing and what should energy companies be doing. But Emily says while this is important there are things people can do at home to save money on their bills.
She said there are "some easy things you can do" to reduce energy consumption in your own home. And the most unusual one involves vacuuming the fridge.
Speaking on 5Live, she explained there are plenty of places to check and potentially change to cut the bills. Here she gives her top advice on making the most of your energy.
Getting more efficient
She said: "The first one for me is using your home appliances more efficiently, when you think about all the big electricity drawers in your house, most of those are going to be white goods, your fridge, a freezer, a washer machine – those kinds of things. Those are all things that we use a little bit kind of casually you know - washing machines and dishwashers especially.
"You can try and make sure you are using them a little bit less, maybe running them full up to the max rather than sort of as and when you need them." She advised people to go around their house and making sure everything is working efficiently as they can.
Vacuuming the fridge
Emily also said that by vacuuming your fridge you can cut the energy consumption of your fridge by 25 per cent. She said: "With fridges, one thing I found out from the Which? fridge team, which I found really interesting, is that there are filters on the side of your fridge which are bringing air in and out and helping the refrigeration process.
"If you make sure you vacuum those, clean the dust out you can make them about 25 per cent more efficient. Fridge freezers use quite a lot of energy, they are on all the time, it is pretty energy intensive to cool things down.
How to cook
Emily said that she doesn't want to make people worried about using their oven but there are more efficient ways to cook, especially if you are cooking small portions. She said: "If you think about it, ovens use a lot of energy and a lot of electricity to heat quite a big space, so if you are cooking something that is really small, putting it into a smaller space like an air fryer or a microwave, you have a look at them, you might find that they are more energy efficient to use because they are heating a much smaller space.
"That’s not necessarily true for every appliance but if you have a smart meter with a device that shows you your energy uses. I would say it is worth doing a little test if you have chips that you frequently cook or something like that.
"Just to have a look at the different appliances that you have got and see which one is using the most energy as you might see that the whole process of heating up the oven, cooking whatever it is. The oven working at full potential just for a small amount of food could be the least efficient way of doing it."
Get ready for heating homes in winter
Emily's final tip was people need to be prepared for winter by making sure that their homes are cosy. She said: "There is one other thing that I think is worth mentioning – once we get into winter again and people’s thermostats start coming on and people’s heats are on – that is really where the most of your energy goes.
"I would just say that electricity and the appliances are worth having a look at but actually, when it comes to it sourcing out your central heating – making sure your boiler is operating as efficiently as it can. If you haven’t had a boiler service yet this year, book that in as that can be a really good way to make sure that is operating efficiently.
"Only heat the rooms that actually need to be heated and just get all that draft proofing in place and make sure your home is nice and cosy before we get into the winter. That is going to be the big one."
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