Warning as households risk being caught out by winter energy costs

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New research shows many families delay vital heating checks until it is too late. A new Winter Prep Checklist is urging households to act now to save money and avoid costly repairs.

Transcript

00:00It's nice to think that summer can last forever, but in the end we always have to face up to the

00:05simple fact that winter is coming. And many of us are not prepared for winter, despite the fact

00:12that it always happens at least once a year. So what can we all do? Why aren't many prepared? And

00:18is there a simpler way to prepare for winter's arrival? I spoke to the experts to find out the

00:24answers. Preparing for winter is something that we don't really do. We prepare for summer, don't we?

00:29But we just never seem to really prepare for winter, which is why I'm here with Smart Energy GB,

00:34just to remind people that you can make some simple little changes and check some of those

00:39things in your house to help you during those colder months. I mean, on average, households don't turn

00:46their heating on, for instance, as you say, because nobody wants to necessarily think about the winter

00:51months. And so they don't turn their heating on until well into the colder months. What kind of

00:55risks are there really involved? We all know what happens when it does start suddenly

00:59getting colder and we rush up and we turn the boiler on and it's not working or something

01:04is not working. And actually, we can spend up to three, four hundred pounds on a visit

01:08for somebody to come and fix those problems. So it's always worth just preparing, going

01:12through these checklists and just before the run up to winter. Actually, winter isn't till

01:17December, but so many of us think it's now, don't they? They start thinking, oh, it's

01:20starting to get cold. It feels like winter, but it doesn't really kick in till then.

01:24So if you can listen to some of these tips, if you can take some advice, if you can prepare

01:29your home for winter, then it's worth doing because in the long run, it can help you with

01:33your energy usage. It can help you save money. So this is why we want to do these things,

01:39just to encourage people to go through their checklist and try and reduce their bills where

01:43they can so that they're not surprised, they're not shocked. And that's where a smart meter comes

01:48in so handy because it gives you that near real-time in-screen display just to show you

01:54in pounds and pence what you're actually using. Because so many of us do just go and turn on the

01:58boiler and then suddenly we're shocked and we're keeping it on all the time. We're not

02:04checking the settings. We're not checking when it comes on, when it goes off. You don't want to

02:09keep it on a constant setting. You want to make sure that you set those timers for when you're in,

02:13not when you're out. There are so many little things that you can do, turning your heating down

02:18by a few degrees, adding draft excluders, all sorts of different things. Can you tell us a bit more

02:23about this winter prep checklist and what things it involves? So I think the most important thing,

02:28number one, is check your boiler. Make sure that it is actually working so you're not shocked when

02:32you go to turn it on. So make sure that you get it serviced and that it's working because you

02:37don't want to spend extra money on any call-out fees. The next thing is lower your boiler's flow

02:42temperature because sometimes that can be really high. So just by reducing it by a couple of

02:47degrees, by reducing that flow can make a real difference to the energy that you're using and

02:52help your boiler run more efficiently. Checking the settings on your heating and hot water.

02:57So like I said, making sure it's not on constant all day, making sure that you've got it on when

03:01you're getting up in the morning, when you're coming home late at night, rather than it just being on

03:05all day. And of course, just making sure we bleed our radiators. You know, it's a very old fashioned

03:11theme, doesn't it? A thing that we do, but it is something that's so important to do, you know,

03:15to make sure that you regularly bleed your radiators so that that energy is going through. So you're

03:21saving on heating costs and, you know, you're keeping your house nice and cozy. Little tools like

03:25this can make a big difference and following these tips can also help you.

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