Over winter I’m sure you will have seen numerous articles and guides to help you keep warm on a budget etc, but now that’s all being thrown out of the window as summer starts make its way into our lives once more. With the weather warm, most people will think they can be able to relax and save money by not having the heating on for hours and making sure radiators are running efficiently, but there are still opportunities to cut summer expenditure further.

Those living in environments that force them into introducing an air con system to their homes and also ventilation will likely spend a fortune on cooling down the home, but there are other ways to ensure that these devices won’t swallow those savings made from turning off the heating:

• Getting the windows open when at home is the most basic and cheapest way to cool down your home during the summer, so get them open, especially once the sun has gone down to get cooler air circulating through the home.
• This is also a way to reduce the need for an electric fan; your usual electrics are taking up about 15 per cent of your household bills as it is, so being able to turn off additional electrics can only reduce this.
• Cooking food always heats up the house and is a great way of an additional method to warm the home in the winter. However, this heat is unnecessary in the summer and so it can be important to cook food such as meat and vegetables (if possible) outside via the BBQ to keep the home as cool as possible.
• One method that counts in both winter and summer is insulation, as losing cool air when warm is as bad as losing warm air when it’s cold. Therefore, ensure you’ve had the home insulated to the proper degree so that the cool air can’t escape and be replaced by more warm air.
• Investing in a programmable thermostat will mean that instead of having the air con on all day to keep your home cool whilst you’re at work, you can pre-set it to make sure it comes on at a certain time to ensure the home is still cool on your arrival.
• Those after a lush garden will want to water the grass and plants either very early in the morning or after the sun has gone down at night, otherwise most of the water you use will evaporate in the heat and not do its jobs as efficiently and to make sure you’re not wasting water.