It feels like energy prices are in the news all the time these days. And you might feel powerless to do anything about your increasing bills, especially if you’re a renter or live in a flat.

If you don’t have a roof for solar panels or an electric car on the drive, what can you do to reduce your electricity bills?

Firstly, knowledge is power. (There’s a pun in there somewhere.) Do you know what’s actually using all that electricity in your home? It’s not always that intuitive and you might be surprised how it breaks down.

A typical London flat

Based on the monthly electricity usage in my flat in London, I created the graphic below.

The short summary is that heating and cooling use a massive chunk of all your electricity - nearly 70% of the monthly cost in the example above. This example doesn’t even include directly heating the home and hot water as that comes from a gas boiler.

There’s also a big overlap with appliances that are in the kitchen. In this case over half of electricity usage is happening in the kitchen.

At the other end of the scale, the things that are often more visibly using electricity every day - lighting and charging your tech gadgets - barely cost anything in comparison.

Although the exact type of lightbulbs you use can make a difference, if you have modern light bulbs you shouldn’t stress too much about running around turning them off all the time.

Want lower bills?

So assuming you know exactly what appliances and devices are using most electricity, what can you actually do about it?

Looking at the big-hitters in the chart above, firstly, there’s not much I can do about my fridge. As for the others I could perhaps drink less tea? Or even invest in a hot water tap. I could get an air fryer rather than having to heat up a full-size oven, but I don’t really have counter space for that.

I could use my dehumidifier less, but that would be quite a compromise to the quality of my homelife.

It’s not going to change the world, but I could turn off my wifi if I’m going away for a few days. I could even put an old-fashioned clockwork timer on the plug that powers my wifi router, but that’s probably getting a bit silly.

Time shifting - real savings

There is one thing that can make a significant difference to your bills, although it’s not available to everyone.

Most people have an electricity tariff where the price per unit is the same at all times of the day and night. There are however energy tariffs that have different prices at peak and off-peak times.

Energy tariffs seem unnecessarily complicated and probably deserve their own post, but the point is that with the right tariff your night-time electricity can be a third of the price of your daytime electricity. Occasionally, prices can even go negative at off-peak times and you’re paid to use energy!

While these “time of use” tariffs won’t necessarily save every home money, if you have devices and appliances that can be run whenever electricity is cheapest you can reduce your bills by taking advantage of the cheapest energy.

Again, if you think about what uses the most electricity in your home, charging your phone at night won’t really make much difference. But if, for example, you can run a dehumidifier or heated clothes airer at night you can make real savings.

Bonus level

As an added bonus, in the UK the cheapest electricity is the greenest electricity, so not only are you saving money, you’re reducing your impact on the environment.

Final thoughts

If you want to save money on your electricity bills, don’t worry too much about turning lights off or making sure you charge your phone at the office. Instead, consider how you use larger appliances, especially ones that heat or cool things.

Having said that, realistically there’s often not much you can do about the big things like your fridge.

Being a renter or living in a flat can also restrict your options when it comes to investing in energy-saving solutions.

Maybe the biggest thing you can do is investigate different electricity tariffs, but you’ll need to be aware of when your home consumes electricity otherwise you could end up with higher bills!

If you can get the right tariff and shift some of your load to off-peak hours at night you could be quids in.

Talk to us

At Windfall Energy we’re developing products that are aimed at renters and people living in flats, and that can help take advantage of cheap off-peak electricity, without you having to cook dinner in the middle of the night!

We’re currently looking for people to talk to about our product development. If you’re a renter or live in a flat, and you’d like to hear more about our plans, we’d love to chat to you. Please drop us a line if you’d be up for that, and if you’re based in London, there’s a coffee on us!

If you’d like to estimate the electricity usage of your own appliances, you can use this calculator from Citizens Advice.

Home Energy Usage - How to Make Real Savings