Top 10 tips for reluctant landlords

From next Wednesday landlords must provide tenants with an energy performance certificate (EPC) or face a £200 fine. You have to provide an EPC only when you re-let to a new tenant. The EPC gives your house an A-G rating on energy efficiency and suggests ways to improve your rating. It costs about £100 and is valid for ten years. Find an accredited domestic energy assessor at hcrregister.com
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Fuel Bills Slashed for Heating and Cooling 300 Year Old House

The 300 year-old house has moved away from traditional oil-fired central heating systems and now benefits from an Ecodan air source heat pump system which uses free energy from the outside air to provide central heating and hot water.

Mrs Fox estimates that by converting to Ecodan system, the family should save around £500 a year on fuel bills, and reduce CO2 emissions from their house by 50%.

“We decided to look for an environmentally friendly alternative to our oil-heating system because it was proving costly, and as our village doesn’t have gas, we looked at alternatives such as wood, solar power and biomass-based systems, but many of these proved difficult to operate,” she explained.

“We are an environmentally aware family and try to do our bit, recycling as much as possible and insulating the house to the highest standards to preserve energy; so when we found Ecodan it made environmental sense, promising energy savings and lowering our carbon footprint.

“The Ecodan unit that is kept outside the house is a similar size to an old-style boiler, but it’s much quieter than our old oil-fired one and doesn’t blow out foul-smelling fumes,” said Mrs Fox.

“Since converting, we have a much more even temperature throughout the house and no longer suffer from drafts. The heat seems to be much gentler and there are copious amounts of hot water – even for my two teenage children who seem to live in the shower!”

By using free energy from the outside air to provide space heating and hot water, Mitsubishi Electric’s Ecodan, the easy to install, low carbon alternative to a traditional gas or oil boiler, can dramatically reduce home running costs and CO2 emissions.

With a conventional gas boiler, one kilowatt of energy delivers less than one kilowatt of heat to a building. With an Ecodan heat pump boiler, one kilowatt of energy delivers a heat output in excess of 3 kilowatts – that’s a 300 per cent increase in energy efficiency – and that is set to grow as the technology develops.

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Save Your Energy With A Bit Of Work

Gas prices have risen by an average of 52 per cent this year, while electricity costs are typically 28 per cent higher than in January.

That means the average annual bill has shot up by £380 in eight months.

Spiralling fuel bills have pushed many customers to switch energy suppliers, with comparison site moneysupermarket.com reporting a 39 per cent increase in visitors during the first six months of the year.

Consumers, however, are left in a quandary as to whether to move to a cheap online variable rate deal - knowing prices could rise again before the end of the year - or sign up to a fixed-rate deal.

The cheapest fixed-rate tariff in Scotland is the Scottish Power Fixed Price Energy 2009 deal, with a typical cost of about £1190.

However, the cheapest online variable rate deal is the British Gas Click Energy 5 deal, which costs about £855 for average consumption levels in Scotland.

nsulation is one of the keys to saving energy, as about 33 per cent of heat in a home disappears through the walls alone.

Cavity wall insulation can cost as little as £150, depending on the type of home you live in, yet could save between £130 and £160 a year.

Grants are available from the likes of British Gas and EDF Energy, and local authorities could pay 75 to100 per cent of the costs depending on your circumstances.

Loft insulation is another great way to save. Typically, it will cost about £200 to £250 if you install it yourself, or £500 if you have it done professionally. However, the savings can amount to about £155 a year.

A formof insulation that is often overlooked, but which can pay for itself very quickly, is floor insulation.

To lift floorboards and insert mineral wool insulation costs about £90 if you do it yourself, and could save you about £40 a year.

If you're looking for a cheaper method, use a regular tube sealant such as silicon to fill the gaps between the floor and skirting boards. At a cost of about £20, you should recoup yourmoney within the first year.

Another option to reduce heat loss is double glazing, with the two panes of glass creating an insulating barrier. This is expensive - installing double glazing for six windows typically costs around £3000 - but you can get secondary glazing, which is much cheaper.

Reducing the heat loss through windows should save you about £100 a year on your energy bills. But double glazing could also earn you a discount fromyour home insurance provider, thanks to the extra security it provides.

Draught-proofing is another wise investment. Filling gaps to stop cold air entering the home could save about £25 a year on energy bills, and most of the materials are available fromDIY stores.

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Brits would change energy supplier to save £200

Energy price hikes have brought people to feel the need for change. Approximately half of the UK's households have never changed their gas or electricity tariff but only 20 per cent of people surveyed now say they wouldn't change their tariff if an annual saving of up to £200 was on offer.

Research by price comparison site moneysupermarket.com shows energy users could save a whopping £483 by swapping - well over double the saving that most people crave.

Scott Byrom, utilities manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: "The hammer blow of two rounds of price hikes so far in 2008 means people are in more need than ever to tighten their purse strings. Gas has risen by 52 per cent since the start of the year and electricity by 28 per cent. Every pound counts at the moment, especially with other day to day living costs on the rise too.

"With winter looming, it's encouraging to see a large proportion of bill payers are actively looking to save."

Londoners and the Welsh are keenest to save, with only 17 per cent of them being unimpressed by a saving of £200. Those in East Anglia though are least likely to change, with 25 per cent unmoved by a £200 cut, including an astonishing 16 per cent saying they would never change.

Scott Byrom added: "The survey found 11 per cent of people would never swap supplier, which is quite worrying. I would have thought a potential saving of £200 would have been enough to convince everyone to take that simple step.

"British Gas Click Energy 5 is the cheapest tariff on the market at present, but its price might increase soon. Even if it does, virtually all online, monthly direct debit tariffs will still be cheaper than any Standard deal.

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