节约能源小贴士

英国物价大幅上涨，推高生活成本，英国人认为精打细算比以往任何时候都重要。本文浅议提高能源效率和减少开支的方法。

We all want to save money, and with the cost of living on the rise in the UK, it's become more important than ever to watch what we spend. The biggest increase in our expenditure at the moment is on energy – the oil, gas and electricity we use to power and heat our homes. That's why many of us are looking at ways to save energy so we don't have to shell out on huge fuel bills.

Making our home more energy efficient is the obvious way to save money. To try to achieve this, new homes in the UK will be banned from installing new gas and oil boilers by 2025. Having a heat pump instead can help save energy, but they're unaffordable for many people, unless they've got spare cash stashed away.

If your home feels like a money pit, there are some low-budget solutions you can turn to to lower your energy usage. Warm air escapes our homes easily, so adding draught excluders or a rolled-up towel to block these gaps will help. Investing in new double glazing will certainly insulate your home better, but if it is too costly, it might be worth using some heavy curtains to stop the heat escaping. Switching off lights is also a good idea.

But there are lots of other little things we can do around the home that will help save energy, don't cost a fortune and that just require tweaks to our behaviour. They could be as good as installing, fitting or making anything. Put lids on pots and pans when cooking – the food will be ready quicker. Use a microwave to reheat food rather than the oven. Don't overfill your kettle when boiling water, and don't leave electrical items on standby. Jo Patterson from Cardiff University's Welsh School of Architecture told the BBC that a combination of small measures like these could reduce household energy bills by about 10%.

So, we're being encouraged to be more fuel efficient. But our main aim isn't just financial – we need to do it to reduce our carbon footprint, so that our energy usage doesn't cost the Earth.