Despite recent well publicised reductions in gas prices, the average combined electricity and gas bill for UK households has increased by around £57 since last year – reflecting a massive increase in the cost of electricity alone. And currently, more British homeowners than ever are now in the grip of fuel poverty (if you spend more than 10% of your income on fuel bills you are classed as ‘fuel poor’).
With the coldest winter in the UK for 31 years just experienced, the bills for around half of the UK population are being sent out now and it may be quite a shock to many to see their average energy bill having risen by around 10% for the last cold quarter alone. Looking at electricity alone, according to DECC (the UK Department of Environment & Climate Change), provisional 2011 statistics show that the average UK electricity bill (across all payment types) rose last year by £38 to £455 – over 8%.
The really depressing part is that this is not a new trend. Since 2004 there have been sustained rises in the price charged to homeowners by all the major energy companies. According to AMDEA (the UK trade association for manufacturers of domestic appliances) between 2005 and 2009 the UK price of domestic electricity nearly doubled from 7p per unit to over 13p per unit. That’s an average of 17% for each year. To put this into context, we can simply summarise by saying that domestic electricity prices have actually doubled since 2004, and the trend is continuing.
Even the government recognises that there have been “sustained price rises” for consumers over the past 6 years (a comment made by junior energy minister David Kidney recently) but they believe a referral to the competition commission would “delay investment in UK infrastructure”. In political language this means the government is not going to do much about it.
So what can you do about it if your electricity bills are sky-rocketing ?
The answer has two elements: your pricing and your consumption.
You can possibly get a better pricing deal by shopping around the energy suppliers (it is generally accepted that consumers who shop around do get better deals) and it is certainly an exercise well worth the effort.
The second way forward is to reduce your domestic energy consumption by making sure that all appliances and lamps are energy efficient, and by using them sparingly. Probably the easiest and cheapest step to take of all (and one that pays immediate benefits) is simply to change your light bulbs.
To get a handle on potential savings, let’s look at the lighting requirements of “an average house”. Assuming that there are about 24 lighting points and lamps in an average house, if they were each using one 60 Watt incandescent bulb (the ubiquitous common light bulb), that’s a total power consumption of 1440 Watts overall. If those lamps were used only for an average of four hours every day, that’s 5.76 kilowatt hours (i.e. 5.76 units of electricity) daily.
Over a year that works out (allowing for some holidays and summer-time reductions) at around 1730 units annually, which at a current cost of around 10p equates to about £173.
· By switching to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) you would save up to 80%, i.e. your lighting bills could reduce from £173 to £35
· By switching to LED based bulbs, you could save up to 90%, i.e. your lighting bills could reduce from £173 to £18
- These sums certainly make economic sense, but there are also some additional benefits…..
- Low energy bulbs last much longer than obsolete incandescent types - up to 15 times longer.
- You’ll also be helping the environment by reducing CO2 emissions at the generating plant
- Modern low energy lamps can be dimmed using standard dimming circuits
- They don’t get hot like incandescent bulbs, so are much less of a safety/fire risk
This would appear to be a ‘no-brainer’. Simply replace your old energy guzzling light bulbs with new low-energy types and you’ll start reducing electricity bills right away!
About Megaman and our low energy lighting solutions:
Megaman is a global brand in high-performance, energy-efficient lighting and an innovative leader in LED and CFL lamp design. Our company has won a range of international energy and environmental awards, which here in the UK includes The Energy Efficiency Recommended label issued by The Energy Saving Trust. Similar awards have been made in Europe and the Far East.
Check us and our partners out at: www.megamanuk.com
