Halloween is not the only scary thing this time of the year. With the weather getting colder, autumn is also the season where many start worrying about high energy bills.

Thankfully, on October 30th, Steve Emsley presented a number of ways to avoid this horror and cut back on energy consumption and bills. The presentation at Jesmond Library was part of the JRA’s 50th anniversary series of talks.

Emsley is quite experienced when it comes to energy saving: he and his wife started to reduce energy consumption in their house over five years ago, when they participated in the Evening Chronicle’s Go Green campaign. Since then they have managed to reduce their use of gas, electricity and water to a minimum. They achieved their goal by a number of ways that Emsley explained during his talk.

Many of these were quite expensive. For example the couple had solar panels installed on their roof. Nevertheless getting started on energy saving is easier and less costly than you might think. The presentation featured a number of actions that residents could take right now with no or little costs.

Monitoring energy use: Knowing what energy is used for in your house or flat can be the first step of reducing energy consumption. Emsley suggested using water meters and appliance energy meters to monitor which devices spend the most energy. Apart from that an infrared gun can be used to check if there are problems with insulation.

Appliance energy meter and infrared gun

Standby devices: That red light on your television set or microwave might use more energy than one thinks. So turning off any devices that do not need to run in the background can already save a small amount on electricity bills.

Heating: Heating costs usually make up the biggest part of the energy bill. Therefore make sure that you only heat where it is necessary by keeping the doors inside your house or flat closed. Wearing warmer clothing inside to avoid unnecessary heating was another advice that Emsley gave.

Switching energy suppliers: According to the Citizens Advice Bureau energy prices in the UK have increased approximately by 36% in 2014. Energy is expensive and therefore it is important to get the best possible offer. To find out if switching your supplier might be an option you can use one of the Ofgem (Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) accredited price comparison sites that are listed here.

These actions are just a first step to reducing energy consumption. The next steps would be costlier, and involve improving insulation, and investments such as solar panels or more efficient boilers. But, as Emsley said: “You can focus on the low hanging fruits first.”