BILL BREAKER
I’m a gas engineer – a simple gadget could slash your energy bill by £164 a year
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A GAS engineer has revealed how a simple gadget could help you to slash your energy bills.
Experts from L&C Gas Services, based in London and Glasgow, often share their best money saving hacks on TikTok.
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In their latest video, a gas engineer explains how smart thermostats could save families living in a semi-detached home around £164 a year on your enegry bill.
Smart thermostats are new bits of kit that connect your heating system to the internet.
It allows you to turn the dial up or down from your smart phone - whether you're in or out of the house.
You can also connect it to Alexa, Cortana or Google and you can use it with a voice assistant.
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It comes as families are feeling the crunch as the ongoing energy crisis has hiked energy bills to record-breaking levels.
In the video, the gas engineer says: "It's always better to have a goal temperature in your house.
"So if you like your house at 22C, let you boiler work to get you to 22C, instead of just having your boiler on with no goal in mind.
"A smart thermostat allows you to control your heating in ways like never before.
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"If you're out and about and it's due to come on, you can just turn it off on your mobile phone."
Smart thermostats can recognise the best temperature setting for your home to prevent you from wasting heat and money.
They do this by altering the temperature by four or five degrees. This ensure that less gas is in usage.
Better systems include geolocation, which enables your smart system to tell if you’re home or not, and reminds you to turn the system off to save cash.
Smart thermostats aren’t the same as smart meters so don’t expect your supplier to give you one for free.
But this comes with an upfront cost that you'll have to factor in, ranging between £150-£250.
And unless you’re handy with a spanner, factor in installation costs, which can be as much as £100.
We've previously listed the five best smart thermostats you can buy right now.
How else to save money on your bills
A cheap way of putting on the heating is by only turning the radiators on in the rooms you are using.
How much you can save varies on a number of factors, such as how big your house is and what energy tariff you are on, for example.
But savvy saver Scott Dixon told The Sun he's saved £490 from just turning the heating on in his lounge.
A classic money saving energy bill trick is to turn your thermostat down by one degree.
This can shave as much as £100 off your bill.
Putting foil behind your radiator could save you £20 a year, according to British Gas engineer Joanna Flowers.
Hot air will be reflected and circulated around the room.
What energy bill help is available?
In October, all households started to receive a £400 energy bill discount.
The payment is dished out by your energy supplier and is split across six discounts between October and March next year.
Households will receive a £66 energy bill discount in October and November and a discount worth £67 in December, January, February and March.
A £300 one-off "Pensioner Cost of Living Payment" will be paid out to eight million households this month.
It will be given to those who already get the winter fuel payment - which is worth between £100 and £300 for those over the state pension age.
Millions of households are also in line to get the £150 Warm Home Discount between December and March 2023.
There are also plenty of energy grants and schemes open to help you out if you're struggling.
British Gas has recently confirmed that it'll pay its most vulnerable customers grants worth £750 to help with sky-high bills.
Ask your supplier what's on offer and how to apply, or check here:
There's also a one-off fuel voucher from your energy supplier if you're on a prepayment metre.
If you're in debt there are plenty of services you can take advantage of and they offer free and friendly advice on how to manage debt.
Most of them can offer you free guidance and help in person, over the telephone or online.
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- - 0800 138 7777
- - 0808 800 9060
- - 0800 138 1111
- - 0808 808 4000
They can also help you take the next steps if you need a debt management plan (DMP) to tackle your debt or an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). These are agreements for managing multiple debts
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