It is possible to save the “guts of a grand” on your energy bills with a few simple changes, a consumer affairs expert has said. 

The Government has warned that energy bills could go up by around 30% this year, which would leave an average Irish household worse off by €500 a year. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Irish Times journalist Conor Pope said the country’s energy costs remain “totally at the mercy” of global conflicts and politics. 

“One of the things that we can do is we can look at our own usage and we can try and take back a little bit of power,” he suggested. 

“Because that's really the only choice that we have.

“We can maybe reflect on how much we're using and see if there's any way that we can save money on our bills.”

Mr Pope continued that he “can’t stress enough” how important it is to consider switching energy providers. 

“Let's say that the standard unit rate is 35 cent per kilowatt hour,” he said. 

“If you move from company A to company B, you could see that standard unit rate now fall by 10 or 20% - now, that could easily knock 600 quid off your bill. 

“Yet, more than 70% of us don't switch; it's an absolute no-brainer when it comes to energy for the very simple reason that there's no difference in the quality of supply or the quality of the product.”

60-20-20 rule

Generally speaking, household energy use can be summarised through the 60-20-20 rule. 

Roughly, 60% is spent on heating your home, 20% heating the water for your showers and laundry, while the remaining 20% is spent on electrical appliances. 

“It varies from house to house and it will depend on how big your house is or how sensitive you are to the cold and how often you have your heat on but, generally speaking, it's a 60-20-20 rule,” Mr Pope said. 

“Obviously then, heating is the biggest expense and that's probably where your listeners should focus in on when it comes to cutting their bills substantially.”

A pensioner in a cold house. Picture by: Alamy.com

Mr Pope noted that a slight reduction in heating temperature can in huge savings over the long-term. 

“If you have the heat on for eight months a year and the average cost of your energy is 35 cent per kilowatt hour, which is what I mentioned, for those eight months, you're spending €225 a month - that's €7.50 a day,” he explained. 

“Now, if you could lower your thermostat from 22 degrees, which is nice and pleasant, to 20 degrees, you'd see the cost fall to €6.80 a day.

“Now, 70 cent, you're listening to me going, ‘That's not going to make any difference.’ 

“But you spread the 70 cent over the course of the eight months that you're heating your house, that's 150 quid. So, that's not to be sniffed at.”

Money next to a radiator. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Similarly, using costly appliances slightly less than you do currently can mean significant savings. 

“A shower uses around 10 kilowatts of energy, which means that if you were to have an, if you were to spend an hour in the shower, that would be around €3.50,” Mr Pope continued. 

“But nobody's going to spend an hour in the shower, because that's wildly excessive.

“A 10 minute shower would cost you 58 cent - but every minute less you spend in the shower saves you six cent.

“If you drop it from 10 to seven, you've saved yourself 18 cent. 

“Do that for a full year, you've saved yourself 60 quid.”

A woman having a shower. Picture by: Karolina Grabowska:

Equally, only boiling the amount of water you need when you make a cup of tea adds up to a noticeable saving in the long-term. 

“If you were to boil a kettle for an hour, that'd be 92 cent,” Mr Pope said. 

“Boiling a full kettle, is around 82 cent; put enough water in your kettle for your cup of tea. 

“Again, if you were, if we were to follow that kind of logic, you will shave a few bob off the bill.”

While Mr Pope admits none of these things by themselves as “going to change the world”, he feels that small steps can add up into something meaningful. 

“If we could all knock 20% off our electricity bills by being more savvy with how we use our energy, then another 10 or 15% off our energy bills by being more savvy with the provider that we have and how we switch, you could be saving yourself the guts of a grand over the course of a year,” he said.

Main image: An energy bill. Picture by: PA Archive/PA Images.