With rising power cost here are some tips for saving money on your energy bills and beating the winter chills

Avoid waste where you can – switch off lights and heat pumps, more energy (and $$) is consumed if you leave on heating when it’s not needed rather than switching it on or off. You can usually put tim­ers on most heaters.

It’s easier to heat small­er spaces – close off sections of the house not in use or not needed to be heated (toilets for example).

Keep warm for longer by preventing the heat escaping through cracks in doors and windows or fireplaces, or with cracks in timber floors by putting down temporary carpet or rugs. Note with gas cooking or heating there must be external ventilation through vents as breathing in these fumes is dangerous.

Use the power of the sun to warm and dry things out – drying the wash­ing outside will save the heater having to work harder to dry out all that extra moisture.

The World Health Or­ganisation recommends keeping living areas to 18C and bedrooms to 17C.

Regularly clean the wet and mould off windows to reduce dampness, make it easier to heat and keep curtains from growing mould, which is one cause of asthma par­ticularly in the vulnera­ble young or elderly.

Open the windows on a fine day is a no cost way to air and dry out inside moisture.

Thick curtains or blan­kets across windows is a low-cost way to stop heat loss.

Shorter showers or switching to low flow showerheads saves on energy needed to heat hot water.

Switching light globes to LED generally more than halves electricity costs for lighting.

For further tips on how to save money on your bills, Brighton Council has a free-to-loan Home Energy Audit Kit avail­able for use by dropping in person to the Council offices or calling to book on 6268 7000.