Big Energy Saving Week – Save

Here’s our final instalment for Big Energy Saving Week. We have been focusing on the main messaging from the Energy Saving Trust – Check, Switch, Save. So, let’s have a look at how much you will be saving as well as other money saving tips.

Save

We’ve talked mainly about switching energy provider and how much money you can save, but what about all of the other things you can do in or around your home to save money and energy?

Saving on you Electricity Bills

• When you use the kettle, only put in as much water as you need to save £7 a year.
• Save £30 a year by turning things off instead of leaving them on standby – this includes TVs, games consoles, microwaves, radios and many other gadgets.
• Cutback your washing machine and tumble dryer usage to just once a week and you’ll save around £5 a year on electricity and £8 on metered water bills.
• Turn off lights in rooms you’re not using and save £15 a year.
• By investing in LED lights instead of old-fashioned halogen bulbs, you can save £35 a year on your electricity bills.

Saving on your Water & Gas Bills

• By using a washing up bowl instead of rinsing under the tap, you’ll save £30 a year.
• If your shower uses water straight from your boiler or hot water tank (opposed to an electric one), consider fitting a water efficient shower head. It will maintain the power, but use less water saving you around £67 on gas and £100 on metered water bills. (This is based on a family of four)
• Keeping with the shower theme, just spending a minute less in there every day will save you £10 a year. It will save you an extra £15 each year if you’re on a water meter. That’s £100 a year for a family of four.
• Turning your heating down a degree will save you between £85 & £90 per year.
• Draughts creep into your home from all sorts of places. Check your windows and doors for gaps as well as your floor. A chimney will also create draughts. By blocking up any gaps you can save between £25 and £35 a year.

Improving your Home

Above are the things we can do instantly at home and that don’t cost a fortune, but what about the bigger projects?

Insulation – Adding loft insulation, cavity wall insulation or just insulating your boiler will save you money. Depending on the amount of insulation you install and type of house you have, will vary the amount you can save, but it can be up to £275 a year! Find out more about insulation and its costs here.

Renewable Energy – This could be generating electricity or heat, depending on what bill you want to reduce. Solar panels and wind turbines will save you electricity, whilst air or ground source heat pumps and thermal stores or solar water heating will help reduce your heating bills.

These can be quite expensive to install, but their payback is normally pretty good. Use the Energy Saving Trusts’ Renewables Selector to find out which is suitable for your home.

Boilers – Take a look at how old your boiler is. If it’s getting on a bit, it may not be as efficient as newer models. Replacing a G-rated boiler with an A-rated boiler will save you £340 a year!

Appliances – There are now energy labels for a lot of appliances we use at home. From ovens, dishwashers, fridges and kettles to TVs, laptops and DAB radios, there are plenty of appliances that we use on a daily basis that can be more efficient and save us money.

Want an example of how much efficient products can save you? If you buy an A+++ fridge to replace your A+ one, it will save you £190 over the lifetime of the product.

Windows – If you’ve got old single glazed timber windows you can save up to £325 per year by replacing with new A-rated windows. If you’re upgrading from old double glazing, the savings will vary on what you upgrade to – triple glazing will keep the heat in better than A+ double glazing, but the latter allows more heat in.

Have a think about what your home needs, but if you’re unsure of which to upgrade to, this article should help.

I hope you’ve found lots of tips to save energy and money here on Good to be Home this week. If you are a proper eco-warrior and looking for more ways to save energy, there’s more advice on the Energy Saving Trust website.

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Big Energy Saving Week – Check

All this week, companies across the UK are teaming up with the Energy Saving Trust and Department of Energy and Climate Control (DECC) for Big Energy Saving Week, spreading the word about how to save energy in our homes.

We thought we’d share the main messaging about Big Energy Saving Week (BESW), sharing 3 articles this week with lots of hints, tips and advice. Today we will cover the ‘Check’ phase of BESW- make sure you visit later in the week for the next phases of your energy saving week.

Check

It’s pretty self explanatory, but you need to make sure you’re checking your energy bills often. You never know what deals you could be missing or if you’re paying too much! If you’re unsure of what you’re paying or if you’re paying too much, give your supplier or Citizen’s Advice a call.

Research carried out earlier in the year discovered millions of homes are paying over the odds for their energy. The study found there are fixed deals available for under £900 a year for the average household, so if you need to check what you’re paying!

The Big 6 tariffs at the time of the investigation were all around 5% more expensive than they should’ve been. On top of this, the research found that 70% of customers on the standard rate tariffs were ‘disengaged’ from the energy sector, possibly the reason why so many people were paying more than they could.

Other things you should be checking are government grants. There are grants such as the Cold Weather Payments, Winter Fuel Payment and the Warm Home Discount Scheme as well as there being grants to help you pay off energy debts.

For more information about energy bill grants, visit Citizens Advice.

Tip of the Day

 

Turn it off – Turning your TV off properly instead of leaving it on standby will save you around £30 a year!

We’d love to hear your energy saving tips! Tweet them to @AnglianHome or @GoodtobeHomeMag using #BESW15

Join us Wednesday as we look at the next phase – Switch.

The post Big Energy Saving Week – Check appeared first on Good to be Home.

Big Energy Saving Week – Check

All this week, companies across the UK are teaming up with the Energy Saving Trust and Department of Energy and Climate Control (DECC) for Big Energy Saving Week, spreading the word about how to save energy in our homes.

We thought we’d share the main messaging about Big Energy Saving Week (BESW), sharing 3 articles this week with lots of hints, tips and advice. Today we will cover the ‘Check’ phase of BESW- make sure you visit later in the week for the next phases of your energy saving week.

Check

It’s pretty self explanatory, but you need to make sure you’re checking your energy bills often. You never know what deals you could be missing or if you’re paying too much! If you’re unsure of what you’re paying or if you’re paying too much, give your supplier or Citizen’s Advice a call.

Research carried out earlier in the year discovered millions of homes are paying over the odds for their energy. The study found there are fixed deals available for under £900 a year for the average household, so if you need to check what you’re paying!

The Big 6 tariffs at the time of the investigation were all around 5% more expensive than they should’ve been. On top of this, the research found that 70% of customers on the standard rate tariffs were ‘disengaged’ from the energy sector, possibly the reason why so many people were paying more than they could.

Other things you should be checking are government grants. There are grants such as the Cold Weather Payments, Winter Fuel Payment and the Warm Home Discount Scheme as well as there being grants to help you pay off energy debts.

For more information about energy bill grants, visit Citizens Advice.

Tip of the Day

 

Turn it off – Turning your TV off properly instead of leaving it on standby will save you around £30 a year!

We’d love to hear your energy saving tips! Tweet them to @AnglianHome or @GoodtobeHomeMag using #BESW15

Join us Wednesday as we look at the next phase – Switch.

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Super Flats are the New Mansion

If we go back in time a hundred years or so (even 20 years), if you were wealthy, you bought yourself the biggest mansion you could afford with as many different utilities and activity areas as possible. It seems the times are changing though as super flats are fast becoming the new mansion.

Gone are the days of people dreaming of living in Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire (it’s twice the size of Buckingham Palace), the country’s rich are now looking for plush, big city, super flats.

It seems the rich and famous no longer want to stand out in a crowd or be in a secluded part of town. They want to be in amongst it, keeping all of the usual luxuries, but within touching distance of the nearest première, airport or celebrity party.

 

This super flat is for sale – £25 million in case you were wondering – and comes with 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and the option to buy a wine cellar (obviously).

Super flats Outselling Mansions

Estate agent Peter Wetherell recently told the Telegraph how the richest live’s have changed as they now crave single storey living. The majority of super flats are like 5 star hotels with luxurious bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas with the additions of home gyms, cinema rooms and stunning views from terraces and balconies.

Because of the changes in stamp duty, mansions sales are in decline according to Wetherell, whilst flats and apartments are holding their own.

York Terrace Penthouse is in a period building – best of both worlds! It’s for sale on Rightmove for a cool £15 million.

People are coming in from all over the world to buy apartments in London and other big cities. With new, international buyers comes new tastes and ways of living and as there’s limited space to build luxurious homes in these cities, the only way to fulfil their needs is to build an apartment or convert a penthouse.

This super flat in Knightsbridge will set you back £75 million, but it does have 5 bedrooms as well as all of the ‘standard’ commodities such as a media room and his and hers dressing rooms.

The lifestyles of the rich and famous are changing the way we live. The added bonus of a concierge and leisure services, that are typically found in hotels and luxurious apartments, appeal greatly to oversea buyers.

Check out this ‘Invisible’ house that went underground to maximise space in London.

The big cities are once again leading the way we live and it looks like what we call home could be in for big changes yet again.

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The Evolution Of The Family Home

Technology, social change and the way we work have drastically changed the British home over the last 50 years. From how long we spend on housework – 44 hours per week in 1965 – to tech that helps us save money every day.

Take a walk through the last five decades of evolution with The Evolution Of The Family Home! Have you kept any old items for nostalgic effect, or are you yet to properly clear out the loft?

Do you think we missed any important aspect of home evolution? Let us know in the comments.

Transcript

Our homes have come a long way since the 1960’s, as have women’s roles within it.

 

How have our homes & families evolved in the last 50 years and what do we want in the future of housing?

 

1960s Dining Room

 

• 56% adults love separate dining rooms, while 38.9% open plan kitchen/diner living spaces trend

 

• 46.9% of homes had a dining room which decreased to 42.5% in the 80’s and raised to 50.6% in 2009

 

• Women began to demand men do a greater share of housework

 

• 1965 women spent 44 hours on housework today only 18.2 hours per week

 

• 25% of people agree the most significant social change over the past 50 years in the way we use our homes is men and women sharing tasks.

 

57% agreed separate dining room was most loved improvement trends over the last 50 years.

 

1970s Kitchen

 

• ‘Housewife’ began to fall out of usage

 

• Dishwashers transitioned from fringe item to necessity

 

• In 1972, 37% of households in UK turned to central heating.

 

• 66% of households said central heating has revolutionised homes the most over the last 50 years

 

• Equal pay act 1970 was fully implemented in 1975.

 

• The UK introduced its first maternity leave legislation through the Employment Protection Act 1975

 

• In 1972 42% of households had a telephone

 

• In 1979 James Dyson patented the bag less cyclonic vacuum cleaner.

 

• Front loader washing machines become dominant in UK

 

• Today, a third of women (37.7%) felt they couldn’t do without an automatic washing machine, compared to just over 1 in 5 men (22.6%).

 

• Almost 1 in 3 said the cooking space was the area in the home people most looked to improve on 40 years.

 

1980s Living Room

 

• Adam Osborne invented the first portable computer in 1981

 

• In 1985 13% of household had a computer

 

• In 1985 women’s share of professional jobs increased to 49% and their share of “management” jobs 36%

 

• In 1982 10% of households in the United Kingdom owned a VCR

 

• 67% of women were working

 

• Married women with a graduate education earned 11 percent less than married men with a high school education

 

1990s Bathroom

 

• In 1992, the first ultrasonic toothbrush initially known as was given the ‘nod’ by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) r to be used in households.

 

• In the 1990s coloured bathroom suites were in fashion, either the avocado green or a blue or pink shade.

 

• All homes built since 1990 are fitted with water meters.

 

1 in 2 of those surveyed said indoor toilets has made the most positive difference to our homes over the last 50 years with saying running hot water and 41% insulated windows.

 

2000s Bedroom [maybe baby in a cot?]

 

• Women spend an average of 11.5 hours doing housework, while men complete just six per week

 

• Paternity leave was introduced to UK in 2003

 

• By 2008, 90% have double-glazing windows in their homes

 

2010s Home Office

 

• In 2011 86% of people owned a mobile phone.

 

• In 2011 all households, 98% had central heating.

 

• 80% of households had a home computer

 

• In 2015, New dads employed by Virgin able to take up to a year’s paternity on full pay

 

• The total amount of electricity consumption by household grew by around 2 per cent per year between 1970 and 2014

 

More than 1 in 5 adults said the ability to work from home due to technological advances had also influenced the way we use our home

 

FUTURE Basement

 

• We want smarter homes with advanced technology and artificial intelligence

 

• People want to be able to use smart phones to control everything in our home.

 

• 1 in 3 adults aspire to or have aspired to have underfloor heating in their homes

 

• Today homeowners are most looking to improve their entertaining, cooking and relaxing spaces (26%, 25.3% and 17.3% respectively).

 

Sources

Klicka för att komma åt dcp171776_302199.pdf

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48195/3224-great-britains-housing-energy-fact-file-2011.pdf

 

Embed This Image On Your Site (copy code below):

 

Courtesy of: Good to be Home

 

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Scariest, Hairiest Spider Picture Competition

It is the time of year where the spiders who were content living outdoors during the summer are now looking for warmer places to hide for the colder months. Back in August it was reported that giant spiders would be taking over our homes, which got us thinking our useful video about removing spiders from your home humanely is just what you all need!

If you haven’t seen it, here it is:

How to Enter

So as these spiders are creeping up on us, running out from under the sofa, shooting webs across doorways and creating little nests in the corner of every room possible, we are giving 3 people the chance to win £100 worth of B&Q vouchers to spider-proof their homes.

To enter the competition simply go to the Anglian Facebook page and post a picture or video of the biggest, hairiest and scariest spider that has come into your home this year. Tag the picture with #HomeInvadingSpiders

You can also enter via Twitter by tweeting a picture or video to @AnglianHome with #HomeInvadingSpiders.

To give you an idea, here’s a couple of beasts I’ve stumbled across (quite literally) in my house…

‘WIN £100 B&Q VOUCHERS TO SPIDER-PROOF YOUR HOME’

PRIZE DRAW TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Opening Date: Friday 2nd October

Closing Date: Friday 30th October

Entry Details

 

To enter our competition to win one of 3 £100 B&Q vouchers, go to this article and enter by posting a picture of the scariest spider you’ve seen in your house onto Anglian Home Improvements’ Facebook page or Twitter.

 

1. This competition is open to residents of the UK, excluding Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland. Entrants must be aged 18 years. Competition excludes employees of Anglian Windows Limited and their families, agents or anyone else professionally associated with the prize draw.
2. Details of how to enter form part of the terms and conditions. It is a condition of entry that all rules are accepted as final and that the entrants agree to abide by these rules. The decision of the Promoter is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
3. The winner will be selected by 5th November 2015.
4. The winner will be notified within 2 days of the closing date of the prize draw.
5. The winner will be notified via email.
6. If the Promoter has had no reply from the winner within 48 hours of the notification, the Promoter reserves the right to re-draw and award the prize to another entrant.
7. The prize is 3x £100 worth of B&Q vouchers. One voucher per randomly selected winner.
8. No Anglian purchase is necessary to enter this prize draw.
9. There is no cash alternative.
10. The prize is non-transferable.
11. By entering the competition the winner agrees to participate in competition publicity, which could include interview and photographs of the winners.
12. Events may occur that render the competition itself or the awarding of the prize impossible due to reasons beyond the control of the Promoter and accordingly the Promoter may at its absolute discretion vary or amend the promotion and the entrant agrees that no liability shall attach to the Promoter as a result thereof.Promoter:
     

    Anglian Home Improvements

     

    PO BOX 65

     

    Norwich

     

    Norfolk

     

    NR6 6EJ

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The History of Laura Ashley’s Damask Designs – Tatton, Annecy & Josette

In this article we will be diving into the history books to see how some of the Laura Ashley Damask designs have been conceived and become popular designs amongst Laura Ashley’s loyal customers.

Traditionally a Damask design is a reversible pattern woven into fabric. It can also be used to describe monochromatic floral designs as found in the designs we are looking at below.

Tatton

The design was born from an antique piece of wallpaper, which was bought by Laura Ashley Ltd from another design archive. First launched in Autumn Winter 2008, the vintage design has been re-established as a modern classic.

This romantic design is available as wallpaper and would look stunning in any room – be it the living room, dining room or bedroom, it will ooze sophistication and style. I also think it has quite a regal feel about it!

Tatton is a adaptable pattern, currently available as a wallpaper in 17 different colour variations. It is this adaptability that has seen it become part of the Laura Ashley Decorative Glass collection, which adds a touch of class to the glass in your windows and doors from Anglian Home Improvements.

The design is available as a positive or negative and in Anglian’s Silvermist, and as you can see below it can provide you with ultimate privacy and plenty of light.

Read about Laura Ashley’s Josette design here.

Annecy & Josette

These two designs have been inspired by antique pieces and are heritage designs – they’re both absolutely gorgeous too!

Annecy is a stylised floral pattern looking lovely on clothing, wallpaper and furniture alike. Its pattern has quite a Victorian feel to it, which is why it complements Anglian’s Traditional range of Classic doors so well.

Josette is another wonderful example of a versatile Damask design and although we covered Josette in our last Laura Ashley article, we had to mention how stunning it is once again.It’s another design that looks great in a positive or negative effect in Anglian’s windows and doors, and has been a staple in Laura Ashley’s collections over the last decade.

What do you think of these Laura Ashley designs? Are any of these your favourites?

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