Introduction 3 panel fold
Left Panel -
Improvements to help make your home warmer & more energy efficient
If your home is cold, draughty or poorly insulated then you could be losing energy through your roof and walls, which means that you’re paying to heat the outside air. But with a range of energy saving home improvements, on offer from npower, you can stop heat escaping and have a warmer home.
With these energy saving schemes for your home, you could:
- Have a warmer home
- Reduce your energy costs
- Make your home more energy efficient
- Reduce your carbon footprint
- Save money with a new boiler
An old and inefficient boiler could cost you £310* in lost energy per year. You could have a new A-rated energy efficient boiler worth up to £3,500 for FREE - eligibility criteria apply.
*Average saving by replacing a G-rated boiler with an A-rated boiler. Energy Saving Trust, 2013
- Warm up with loft insulation
25% of energy could be lost through your roof*. By insulating your roof you can keep the warmth in.
You could have up to £300 worth of loft insulation for FREE - eligibility criteria apply.
*Energy Saving Trust, 2013
- Retain heat with cavity wall insulation
35% of energy could be lost through your walls*.
You could have up to £500 worth of cavity wall insulation for FREE - eligibility criteria apply.
*Energy Saving Trust, 2013
Middle Panel -
Energy figures into almost every human activity: it heats our homes, fuels our cars, ploughs our soil and powers our machinery. Harnessing the world's energy supply has brought standards of living to new heights. Americans (western lifestyles) are so accustomed to energy use that one can scarcely imagine surviving at a time before it existed.
Energy provides us with a means of using fun and convenient appliances. But what exactly is energy and where does it come from? Scientists define energy as “the ability to do work.” For example, we harness energy to run factories, provide heat and light in our homes and schools, power our cars and school busses, and many other things!
People can take energy from different sources: fossil fuels (gas, oil, coal), nuclear power, wind power (windmills), solar power (from the sun) hydroelectric power (water dams) and a few new innovative ways. Energy is very useful to us, but energy costs us money to use in our cars, homes, work, and schools. In addition, most of the energy people use comes from fossil fuels – and this causes a lot of pollution as well as other problems.
Keep in mind:
• A ‘watt’ is a unit that measures how much energy is used by a machine or appliance.
• Burning one pound of coal produces 926 watt-hours of energy and emits 2.64 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Using one gallon of gasoline (6.5 pounds) will move the average car between 15 and 25 miles and emit 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, which causes global warming.
• Using natural gas produces half as much carbon dioxide as coal or oil.
• Using renewable energy, such as solar, wind, or water instead of fossil fuels like coal and oil produces
no carbon dioxide.
Diagram of house with energy saving tips from it.
Right hand panel -
A5 info booklet
Top Tips
- Turn your thermostat down. Reducing your room temperature by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent and typically saves around £65 per year. If you have a programmer, set your heating and hot water to come on only when required rather than all the time.
- Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat should be set at 60°C/140°F.
- Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows and check for draughts around windows and doors.
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
- Don't leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave laptops and mobile phones on charge unnecessarily.
If possible, fill up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher: one full load uses less energy than two half loads.
- Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you're using an electric kettle).
- A dripping hot water tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath, so fix leaking taps and make sure they're fully turned off!
- Use energy saving light bulbs. They last up to 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs, and using one can save you around £50 over the lifetime of the bulb.This saving could be around £130 over its lifetime if you're replacing a high wattage incandescent bulb, or one used for more than a few hours a day.
- Do a home energy check. Just answer some simple questions about your home and we'll give you a free, impartial report telling you how you can save up to £325 a year on your household energy bills.
Cut Down
Lights: Could you get into the habit of turning lights off when you leave a room? A family could save between £50 and £90 a year just by remembering to turn things off, if they don't already do this. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013).
Showers: Annual saving - £50
Having a shower instead of a bath uses only a third of the energy, so limit your long soaks in the tub and save them for days when you really need to relax and unwind. Beware of power showers, though, which are less energy efficient than standard showers. If you don't like the thought of standing under a dribble of water, get yourself a BodySpa Showerhead – an innovative way to save energy, water and money without losing water pressure.
Washing machines: Check out your washing machine’s settings, see if there’s a ‘half load’ option for small amounts of clothes. With modern washing powders, you can usually choose a lower temperature on your washing machine too.
Don't overfill the kettle
Annual saving - £20
Only boil as much water as you need. Heating water uses a lot of energy, and it's easy to overfill the kettle for one cup of tea. Why not buy an eco kettle so you don't have to guess how much you need? We tend to boil twice as much water as we use - perhaps we're just too lazy to revisit the tap every time we fancy a cuppa? The eco-kettle has an internal reservoir which holds up to 8 cups of water, and a separate chamber for boiling. So you fill the kettle, press the measuring button and, hey presto, the eco kettle boils just enough water for your needs.
Turn Down
Water temperature: Check the thermostat on your boiler, see what the temperature settings are for hot water and think about turning it down just a couple of degrees. That will make a difference to the amount of energy you’re using.
Heating: Turn down your general thermostat settings too: 21°c should be plenty. You may be used to having your house much warmer than this, so if your thermostat’s set at 24 or 25°c, turn it down one degree at a time over a couple of weeks. And just remember: every degree that you turn it down could save you around £65 a year on your heating bill! (Source: Energy Saving Trust, October 2013).
Radiators: Switch off radiators in the rooms you’re not using regularly and keep internal
doors shut. Otherwise, draughts and poorly insulated windows will mean you’re burning energy un-necessarily.
Washing Machine: Wash at 30. Washing clothes at 30 degrees rather than at higher temperatures uses around 40% less energy. Modern washing powders and detergents work just as effectively at lower temperatures so unless you have very dirty washing, bear this in mind.
Shut Down
Electrical goods: When you leave mobile phones, laptops and iPod chargers on standby, they could still be using energy. Switching them off and unplugging them once they’re fully charged is a great way to be more energy efficient. And remember – if your charger has an LED to show it’s in use, it’s still using energy until you switch it off at the wall.
Appliances: Do you use a dishwasher? Wait until it’s fully loaded before starting it, and remember that – if you run it overnight – it’ll be using energy until you switch it off in the morning. Why not invest in a timer plug and run it automatically for a shorter period of time instead?
Taps: A running tap wastes more than six litres of water a minute, so turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face - and use cold water if you don't need hot. A dripping tap can waste more than 5,500 litres of water a year, so make sure your taps are properly turned off and change washers promptly when taps start to drip.
Other ways to save
Climate control
Curtains: Closed curtains prevent warm air escaping from the windows at night, and that helps keep your house warmer for longer
Radiators: Do make sure your radiators aren’t blocked by curtains or furniture – it’s good to make the best of the heat you’re paying for!
Don’t forget: Also, if the sun warms some rooms but not others, leave internal doors open to let the warm air circulate throughout your home.
Buy draught excluders
Draught excluders are great for keeping out the chilly draughts that sneak in around your windows and doors
Thermal or heavy curtains help during the winter, as do letter box covers and key hole covers – keeping the cold chills out and the warm air in.
Use energy efficient light bulbs
A new, energy-efficient light bulb uses much less electricity than an old-fashioned bulb
When you swap your old bulbs for new energy-efficient version, you could be saving up to £50 each time over the lifetime of the bulb. (Source: Energy Savings Trust, October 2013)
Energy Efficient Appliances
Annual saving - up to £100 Are you harbouring a wasteful washing machine or an ineffective oven? Many household appliances are uneconomical, especially older models. Energy efficient models can save you substantial sums:
£45 a year for a fridge freezer
£15 a year for a dishwasher
£25 a year for a PC and printer
You can check the rating of your existing appliances or search for the most efficient models at the Energy Savings Trust.
What's Watt?
Like all energy companies, we measure how much energy you’ve used in kilowatt hours (kWh). When you use 1000 watts of energy for 1 hour, that's a kilowatt-hour. To make life easier, we’ve worked out the kWh measurements for some everyday examples so you can see how much energy you’re using.
A kilowatt hour gives you:
- 9 uses of a kettle
- 4 hours watching tv
- 24 hours gaming
- 286 hours of phone charging
- 27 minutes ironing
- 31 hours on a laptop
- 1-2 cycles of a washing machine
- 80 minutes using a microwave
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