Keeping your home comfortable and your energy bills low can be a balancing act. But it's surprising how much you can achieve by making a few easy adjustments to your home and daily habits.
We're working with British Gas to ensure people affected by stroke can get the support they need to manage their utility bills. Here, they share some ideas for improving your energy efficiency to help save you money:
- Turn off the lights whenever you leave a room. Fitting energy-efficient bulbs can also help you save about £40 a year on electricity bills.
- Unplug your phone, tablet or laptop chargers when you're not using them, so you're not paying money for wasted energy.
- Switch off your TV and other appliances when you're not using them. Try not to leave them on standby as they're still using energy.
Did you know? UK households waste around £30 a year powering appliances they're not using.
- Move your furniture, including sofas, a couple of inches away from radiators. This improves air circulation and enables the heat to reach and warm up your room much faster.
- Close your curtains or blinds in the evening to keep the warmth in.
- Fit foil panels. It's surprisingly easy to add reflector panels behind your radiators to bounce more of the heat rays back into your room, so less warmth gets lost through the wall.
- Reset your heating controls or radiator valves, so you only heat the rooms you're using.
Our Stroke Helpline can now directly refer British Gas customers to the British Gas Customer Care Team for support with their utilities, access to energy-saving information and products, and financial aid. Some of these services are available to people who aren't British Gas customers too, so our Helpline can also direct you to where you can get information about the support and grants available to you.
Find out more
Contact our Stroke Helpline on 0303 3033 100 or email helpline@stroke.org.uk.
Learn more about the extra support services available to British Gas customers by visiting the Priority Services Register web page.
You can also watch our recent UK Stroke Assembly webinar on 'Managing finances after stroke' below.
Stroke News magazine
This article is featured in the winter 2020 edition of our magazine, Stroke News. Subscribe to our future editions available in print, on audio CD, or via email.