Energy Saving Week 2024

For those seeking energy efficiency and support with bills in Northern Ireland, there are multiple resources available. Here’s how you know if you’re on the correct tariff or who to contact should you have difficulty paying your energy bills.  

Check your tariff 

Check that you‘re on the correct tariff or the cheapest method of payment by using The Consumer Council NI tariff comparison tool. 

Use advice services  

Contact the NI Energy Advice Service on 0800 111 4455 (9am – 5pm Monday to Friday) or email your query to nienergyadvice@nihe.gov.uk for: 

• free, tailored, independent energy advice based on your situation 

• grant information on the Northern Ireland Sustainability Energy Programme or Affordable Warmth Scheme to install energy efficient measures in your home.

Support for paying energy bills 

If you’re struggling to pay your gas or electricity bill, contact your supplier in the first instance for help and advice.  

Make sure you take regular meter readings and forward to your supplier, to ensure your bills are accurate. 

The Home Energy saving tool from the Housing Executive can also help you understand how energy efficient your home is currently and provide recommendations for improvement. 

Support for those with additional support needs 

If you rely on electricity for healthcare, join the Northern Ireland Electricity Networks medical customer care register for extra support during power cuts.  

Power NI customers with disabilities, health issues, or access needs can sign up for their customer care register or call 03457 455 455 (9am – 5pm Monday to Friday) for support services. 

Support for oil heated homes 

The NI Oil Savings Network (NI OSN), managed by the Housing Executive’s NI Energy Advice Service, is open to all Northern Ireland households. Members can order oil weekly and receive discounts on smaller fills (200-400 litres). Learn more at nihe.gov.uk or contact the team via email oilsavings@nihe.gov.uk, text 07507 301 980 or call 0800 111 4455. 

Oil users can also join an oil stamp scheme, saving with £5 stamps to use toward oil orders. Your local council can provide details on participating suppliers and outlets selling stamps. 

For all homes, improving insulation and reducing heat loss can make a significant impact on your energy costs and carbon footprint.  

If you live in an oil heated home 

Roof insulation 

• Most homes have some loft insulation, but many don’t have the recommended 270mm minimum depth. Topping up your loft insulation from 120mm to 270mm could save around £25 and 80kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

• If you have no loft insulation, installing 270mm of new insulation could save £260 and 850kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Cavity wall insulation 

• Cavity wall insulation could save £270 and 90okg of carbon dioxide a year External or internal solid wall insulation can save around £370 and 1200kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Hot water cylinders 

• Insulating an uninsulated hot water cylinder with an 80mm jacket could save around £200 and 1000kg of carbon dioxide a year. 
• Adding an 80mm insulating jacket to a hot water cylinder with only 25mm foam insulation could save around £45 and 230kg of carbon dioxide a year  

Reflective radiator panels 

• Installing reflective radiator panels behind radiators on external, uninsulated cavity or solid walls could save around £20 and 100kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

Pipework 

• Exposed pipes may be losing heat that could be used to heat your home. Uninsulated pipes aren’t heating the rooms you want, therefore wasting energy. Insulating exposed pipes within your house could save you around £6 and 25kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Draught-proofing: chimney, doors and windows 

• If you don’t use your fire, you could prevent draughts by insulating your chimney to make your home feel warmer. A chimney draught excluder can save around £65 and 220kg of carbon dioxide a year. 
• Draught-proofing windows and doors can save around £45 and 150kg of carbon dioxide a year.

If you live in a gas heated home 

Roof insulation 

• Most homes have some loft insulation, but many don’t have the recommended 270mm minimum depth. Topping up your loft insulation from 120mm to 270mm could save around £30 and 55kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

• If you have no loft insulation, installing 270mm of new insulation could save £330 and 600kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

Cavity wall insulation 

• Cavity wall insulation could save £340 and 650kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

• External or internal solid wall insulation can save around £470 and 900kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

Hot water cylinders 

• Insulating an uninsulated hot water cylinder with an 80mm jacket could save around £280 and 700kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

• Adding an 80mm insulating jacket to a hot water cylinder with only 25mm foam insulation could save around £65 and 160kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

Reflective radiator panels 

• Installing reflective radiator panels behind radiators on external, uninsulated cavity or solid walls could save around £30 and 70kg of carbon dioxide ever year. 

Pipework 

• Exposed pipes may be losing the heat the boiler is generating to heat your home. Uninsulated pipes are not heating the rooms you want, therefore wasting energy. Insulating pipes that are exposed within your house could save you around £8 and 19kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

Draught-proofing: chimney, doors and windows 

• If you don’t use your fire, you could prevent draughts by insulating your chimney to make your home feel warmer. A chimney draught excluder can save around £85 and 150kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

• Draught-proofing windows and doors can save around £55 and 110kg of carbon dioxide a year in a gas heated home. 

If you live in an electric heated home 

Hot water cylinders 

• Insulating an uninsulated hot water cylinder with an 80mm jacket could save around £320 and 460kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

• Adding an 80mm jacket to a hot water cylinder with only 25mm foam insulation could save around £70 and 100kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Thinking about low carbon technology like heat pumps or solar panels for your home but unsure where to begin? Read on to discover the types of heat pumps available and find out how much solar panels could save you each year on your energy bills. 

What are solar panels, how do they work? 

Solar panels use light energy from the sun, even on very cloudy days, to make electricity. This electricity can be used to power your appliances and electronics, or even charge an electric vehicle.  

Use our solar panel calculator to help you discover potential energy bill and carbon footprint savings for your home. 

Even if you’re out all day, installing a typical solar panel system (3.5kWp) with a hot water diverter could save £300 and 950kg of carbon dioxide a year in an oil heated home. In a gas heated home you could save £350 and 800kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Low carbon heating for your home 

Switching to an efficient, low-carbon heating system is key to cutting fuel bills and lowering your carbon footprint. To meet the UK’s net zero target, emissions from home heating must drop by 95% over the next 30 years — from 2,690kg per household in 2020 to just 140kg by 2050. 

What is a heat pump? 

Heat pumps offer an energy-efficient, low-carbon solution for heating your home. Suitable for nearly all home types, they can also lower your energy bills, depending on the system they replace. 

Replacing an old, G-rated oil boiler with an air source heat pump could save £30 and 4400kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Replacing an old, A-rated gas boiler with an air source heat pump could save £90 and 1900kg of carbon dioxide a year.

Hybrid heat pump 

A hybrid heat pump refers to a system that uses a standard heat pump alongside another heat source, usually a fossil fuel (gas, oil or LPG) boiler.  

This boiler could be an existing boiler, or you could be considering installing a new boiler at the same time as the heat pump. 

Which technology is best for you? 

Use our online assessment tool, Go Renewable, to find out what renewable technologies are suitable for your home.  

If you’re considering a heat pump, you can read our in-depth heat pump guide to see if a heat pump is right for you. 

Take control of your heating system to save money and improve comfort. Using a heating programmer and thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) lets you customise your heating to fit your routine. Upgrading to an efficient boiler or high heat retention electric storage heaters can also reduce your energy bills and carbon footprint. Read on for tips to optimise your heating and thermostat settings. 

If you live in an oil heated home 

Boilers and controls 

• A heating programmer lets you set your heating to come on and turn off at certain times of the day, so set it up to suit your lifestyle. TRVs let you turn up and down the heat given off by each radiator. 

• Install and correctly use a full set of controls* on your current heating system so you’re in full control of how you heat your home. It could save you around £120 and 440kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

• Replacing a G-rated oil boiler with some controls (or an oil boiler installed more than 12 years ago) with an A-rated oil boiler with a full set of heating controls* could save around £350 and 1500kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Thermostat 

• Your room thermostat lets you set the desired temperature of your home. Once the temperature is reached the boiler switches off. A common misconception is that turning your thermostat up will heat up your home quicker; but all that will do is heat your home to a higher temperature at the same rate. Having insulation increases the speed your home heats up and maintains the heat in your home, as less heat is being lost through the building. 

• Turning your room thermostat down by one degree could save you £100 and 440kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

• Be mindful of the heating up and cooling down of your home. Set your timeclock for your heating to come on about 30 minutes before you get up and set your heating to go off about 30 minutes before bedtime. This will vary from house to house. 

• Some controls let you control temperatures and the times your heating turns on in different rooms, known as zonal controls. If you don’t have any controls now and add zonal controls, it could save you around £180 and 650kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

If you live in a gas heated home 

Boilers and controls 

• A heating programmer lets you set your heating to come on and turn off at certain times of the day, so set it up to suit your lifestyle. TRVs let you turn up and down the heat given off by each radiator. 

• Install and correctly use a full set of controls* on your current heating system so you’re in full control of how you heat your home. It could save you around £160 and 300kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

• Replacing a G-rated gas boiler with some controls (or a gas boiler installed more than 12 years ago) with an A-rated gas boiler with a full set of heating controls* could save around £480 and 1000kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

Thermostat 

• Your room thermostat lets you set the desired temperature of your home. Once the temperature is reached the boiler switches off. A common misconception is that turning your thermostat up will heat up your home quicker; but all that will do is heat your home to a higher temperature at the same rate.  Having insulation increases the speed your home heats up and maintains the heat in your home, as less heat is being lost through the building. 

• Turning your room thermostat down by one degree could save you £140 and 300kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

• Be mindful of the heating up and cooling down of your home. Set your timeclock for your heating to come on about 30 minutes before you get up and set your heating to go off about 30 minutes before bedtime. This will vary from house to house. 
• Some controls let you control temperatures and the times your heating turns on in different rooms, known as zonal controls. If you don’t have any controls now and add zonal controls, it could save you around £230 and 440kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

* Full set of controls includes a room thermostat, programmer and TRVs.  

If you live in an electric heated home 

Electric storage heaters 

• If you have electric heating, upgrading your old electric storage heaters to modern high heat retention storage heaters could save you around £600 and 750kg of carbon dioxide a year. 

• To save money, remember to set your input dial lower in milder weather (and back up again when or cold weather is forecast). Your output dial controls how quickly the stored heat is released, so have it low or off when you’re asleep or out of the home, saving it ready for when you need it. 

Making small adjustments to your daily routines can have a powerful impact on both your energy bills and the environment. From turning off appliances to switching to energy-efficient bulbs, these simple changes can lead to significant savings.  

Switching it off 

• Avoiding standby and turning appliances off when you’re not using them could save up to £55 and 35kg of carbon dioxide every year. 
• Turning off your lights when you don’t need them could save you around £9 on your annual energy bills and avoid 6kg of carbon dioxide emissions a year. 

LEDs 

• The most common light fixtures still using inefficient bulbs are spotlights and downlighters. By replacing 15 halogen spotlights in your kitchen with energy saving LEDs, you could save around £50 a year from your energy bills, and 35kg of carbon dioxide every year. 

Washing and drying 

• Setting your washing machine to wash at 30 degrees rather than higher temperatures can save around £15 and 11kg of carbon dioxide every year. You’ll also use around 57% less electricity than washing at higher temperatures. 

• If you have an electric tumble dryer you can save around £60 and 45kg carbon dioxide by line drying your clothes during the summer. 

• If you use a heated drying rack instead of an electric tumble dryer you could save around £30 and 20kg of carbon dioxide every year. Just remember to ventilate your home when you use it to get rid of excess moisture. 

• Only filling the kettle up with as much water as you need could save around £12 in energy bills a year. 
• Using a bowl to wash up rather than leaving the hot tap running saves a lot of water. A typical 10 litre washing up bowl fills up in just 95 seconds. 

Cooking 

• Cooking in an air fryer uses less electricity than an electric oven. If you cooked 600g of chicken breast in an air fryer it would be 6p less expensive than the oven; and 1kg of chips would cost 13p less in an air fryer, saving you money off your electricity bill. 

• Using a microwave to cook a 400g lasagne can save 13p off your electricity bill compared with an electric oven. 

• Cooking a large 3.6kg beef stew uses 11p less electricity when you use a slow cooker rather than an electric oven. 

Showers 

If you live in an oil heated home 

• You could save around £12 off your yearly oil bill per person by replacing an inefficient shower head with a water efficient one. 

• Spending one minute less in the shower each day could save £8 per person annually, on your oil bill. 

• Swapping one weekly bath with a 4-minute shower could save £4 per person annually on your oil bill. 

If you live in a gas heated home 

• You could save around £17 off your yearly gas bill per person by replacing an inefficient shower head with a water efficient one. 

• Spending one minute less in the shower each day could save £11 per person annually, on your gas bill. 
• Swapping one weekly bath with a 4-minute shower could save £6 per person annually, on your gas bill. 

If you live in an electric heated home 

• Spending one minute less in the shower each day could save £14 per person annually on your electric bill. 

• Schools challenge letter
• Worksheet for teachers
• Worksheet for parents, guardians and carers
• Results form

Entrants must be from a primary/secondary (year 8 and 9) school with a Northern Ireland postal address.  Entry is excluded to persons connected with this promotion and employees and those related to employees of Energy Saving Trust, Power NI and The Housing Executive.

Only entries submitted via the email address eswni@est.org.uk are eligible for the prize.

One winner will be selected from the entrants received by the competition deadline at 11:59pm on Friday 17 January 2025.Entrants can only win one prize and there can be only one school that wins. No alternative prizes will be available. The prizes are as follows:

• A prize of up to £1,000 to be spent on a sustainability project/initiative to benefit the school. This will be awarded based on the highest amount of carbon saved throughout five days (pro rata according to the size of the school’s head count). This prize is sponsored by Power NI.
• Five refurbished touchscreen DELL laptops (256GB) will be awarded to the next five schools that demonstrate the highest energy savings. Each winning school will receive one laptop. This prize is sponsored by the Schools’ Energy Awareness Programme, Housing Executive.

No expenses incurred in connection with the competition will be paid other than as set out in these terms and conditions.

Energy Saving Trust reserves the right to substitute a prize or part thereof with a prize of equal or higher value in the event of unforeseen circumstances and/or withdraw or amend the promotion at any time without prior notice.

The winner will be selected by Energy Saving Trust after the amount of carbon saved by each school throughout five days (pro rata according to the size of the school’s head count) has been calculated.

Should the prize winner be unable to accept the prize or not respond to Energy Saving Trust within five days of the notification date, Energy Saving Trust has the right to draw an alternative winner.

The prize must be accepted as offered, is non-transferable and cannot be refunded or exchanged.

By entering this promotion, you agree, if you win, to participate in related and reasonable publicity at the request of the Promoter (including promotional photographs and interviews) without further recompense.

Energy Saving Trust’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into in respect of all matters to do with this promotion.

Energy Saving Trust will not be responsible for the non-inclusion of entries or any claims as a result of being lost, late, illegible, incomplete, invalid, or because of technical failures or otherwise, including such failure which is within the control of Energy Saving Trust or its agencies.

Entry into the competition constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions.

Failure to comply with these terms and conditions will automatically render a prize draw entry void.

The school name and the location of the school will be available for one month after the competition closing date and will be available online at energysavingtrust.org.uk

By entering the prize draw, entrants are sending their personal information to Energy Saving Trust who will at all times process an entrant’s personal data in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act 2018. For more information, please see our privacy policy.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Energy Saving Trust accepts no liability whatsoever in connection with this promotion.

To the extent permitted by law, the promoter and third parties connected to the promoter hereby expressly exclude:

• All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
• Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any entrant or winner in connection with any competition or any entry.