How to Reduce Your Gas and Electricity Costs

Author: Kim chambers

Maintaining a home can often prove to be a costly business. Gas and electricity prices in the UK often change readily but there are numerous measures you can take to ensure that you don’t end up out of pocket. To help you along the way, here is a handy guide detailing a few tips to reduce your bills.

The first thing to do is to make sure that your gas and electricity suppliers are indeed the right company to be with. Ofgem estimate that simply by comparing gas and electricity tariffs it is possible to reduce bills by up to £150. Now while this may seem like a potentially time-consuming task, using a price comparison site can take a lot of the hassle out of looking up quotes for gas and electricity companies.

The next step would be to check if your home is optimised to ensure minimum gas usage. Insulation is a great way to cut costs. The Energy Saving Trust says you can save around £120 on yearly gas bills with the correct insulation. Of course, another great way to save money is to simply turn down the temperature! By lowering the thermostat by just one degree Celsius, you can reduce gas costs by around 10 per cent. You probably won’t even notice the difference! Using energy saving light bulbs is a great way to cut down on your electricity bills saving you even more money and the environment.

Little things that don’t seem like they could help often make a world of difference. Make sure you completely switch appliances off and don’t just leave them on standby, don’t leave the heating on whilst out, and even closing your curtains during sunset can trap heat thus enabling you to ease off the radiators.

The kind of domestic appliances that you use within your home will also make a big difference on your bills. Gas hobs on a cooker for example, will add up to 15 per cent on your gas bills. Fridges and freezers account for 18 per cent of the average electricity consumption, so choosing the right fridge is extremely important when it comes to saving money. By choosing energy saving appliances when making new purchases you could again reduce the amount of money spent on gas and electricity bills per month.

Lastly it is worth noting that insuring your boiler can be very handy in the event of a breakdown or malfunction. Emergency repairs can cost up to £76 an hour! Most gas providers will offer insurance, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

About the Author:

Olivia has 2 years experience writing articles about gas and electricity. She also enjoys writing articles on various other topics.

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Tips On How To Save Money When Shopping

Shopping is very addictive. Most of the time, the household budget is sacrificed once you go shopping. Shopping should not give you headaches as long as you know how to budget. Here are the things that you need to remember:

1. Always remember to spend your money wisely whenever you go shopping. Bring only the exact amount of money you need in buying your items. To ensure that you only buy the important things, you have to make a list of the items that you need to buy. You may then budget your money wisely and will prevent you from buying things that are not that important.

2. It is advisable that you compare prices from different stores before buying an item. Do not limit yourself to just one store. There are stores that offer the same quality but can have a lower price. A smart thing you may do is to be attentive to the prices of the items that you buy regularly when shopping. There are instances that a store has an untimely changing of prices on different items.

3. It is recommended that you do your shopping during the end of the season. Prices of many items, especially clothes, are very low and affordable during this time of the year. You may buy clothes in the months of August and September if you are looking for bargain clothes for your summer wear.

4. You may shop in dollar stores where you can find items that are on sale and where prices are low. Although the quality of some items is not the same when you buy in malls and shopping galleries but the merchandises are still new and not yet used. These stores can provide you the best prices that can cope with on your budget.

5. Another way to save money while shopping is to economize the travel you make in finding the stores you want to buy an item. You may take a stop on your daily route to check if the items you buy regularly have not changed their prices or are still in the price of your budget. You may purchase the item even before you do your shopping schedule. This can save you fuel and time.

6. Try to find discount stores that offer quality items that have discounts and can offer a very affordable price on your desired item. The prices on discount stores may vary depending on the season of the year. These stores can be located in large shopping areas like in malls and shopping galleries.

NEW! Click here for more help on how to budget successfully and to learn the eight steps to effectively tackle the process of saving money.

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Cheap Vacation Spots

In this world of heavy costs, if one wants to spend his holidays overseas in some cheap amount of money, he has to select an area of the world to visit rather than visiting top ten vacation spots, which are located so distant from each other. Now let us discuss some of the top and relatively cheap vacation-zones of the world.

The US vacation zone first. It will be cheap for someone, who wants to visit USA if he includes states like Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida, California, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Colorado, and Los Angeles. In this stretch of the US vacation Spots one may be able to enjoy the beauty of excellent landscapes of mountains, rivers, desert and forest as well. And also he will be able to enjoy the man-made beauties of some excellent monuments and buildings like Tower Stratosphere, Hollywood, Disney Land, and Bear Mountain Bridge etc.

The Second cheap vacation spot comes to the mind is the European Union Territory. This Territory must include Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Netherlands as the vacation spots. London and Paris are two cities where the vacation can be thoroughly enjoyed. River Tames, Big Ben, Eiffel Tower are the special spices to these two cities. Greece and Italy are two countries with lots and lots of historical monuments. Cities of Venice, Rome, and Athens are really worthy places to visit, located in those two countries! If one wants to spend a beautiful vacation span with snows the Switzerland is the best place for him. Three cities Lucerne, Zurich, and Berne have nice holiday spots and resorts!

The SAAF is another nice place to visit if one wants to spend his vacation is cheap rates. The SAAF area includes countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan. Pakistan will be your choice if you want to spend your holidays in dry condition and Bangladesh if mild climate is wanted. Again Nepal and Bhutan are the places of mountains. Some excellent snow-capped mountains peaks are worth watching in these two countries! Again Maldives and Sri Lanka are must-visited countries if one wants to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of sea beaches. And last but not least, in India you will be able to find every thing mentioned above. India consists of some excellent historical regions to all kind of natural landscapes and excellent man-made monuments too. Cities like Delhi, Kochi, Mumbai, Hyderabad (of India and Pakistan both), Anuradhapura, Dhaka, Katmandu, Thimpu, and Male are really nice places to visit!

The other option of cheap vacation spot is the Australian zone, which includes Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Auckland are the cities to watch. Landscapes of Sea Beaches and the forests of these two countries are all time famous.

The Southeast Asia is also a good option for the cheap vacation places. This area is famous for sea beach landscapes. The Southeast Asia includes the countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Philippines etc.

There are some other good options in form Japan and Hong Kong too. Now start planning where to visit in this vacation, obviously considering your pocket! Happy vacation!

About the author:
Author Bio
The author is a world wide traveler. He shares his experience about the Best vacation spots, top 10 vacation spots, winter-vacation-spots, cheap-vacation-spots, Family vacation spot, summer vacation spots with us.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

chocolate sauce

My new penny pinching thing to do is homemade chocolate syrup instead of the store bought one for chocolate milk.
On the stove in a small pan, heat up a cup or 2 of water with 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 5 tablespoons of sugar and some vanilla extract. I head it all up.
In the mean time put a teaspoon of cornstarch in a cup with a little water, mix it up and add it to the syrup, it will thicken it up a little bit.
Using a funnel, put your new chocolate sauce in the same bottle, the kids might not even notice it's homemade syrup! and it saves you $$$

Hybrid Cars: Do You Really Save With These Fuel Economy Cars?

At the time of this writing, there is a game being played. And in my opinion, the game is called, "confronting the US oil crisis". The major players are the car manufacturers, the government, maybe the EPA and have course the people being the unwitting spectators that are readily lured to the show.

And the game pieces are the fuel economy cars also known as hybrid cars.

I will begin by emphasizing the point that I don't know everything there is to know about this so called "impending oil crisis". And I'm not sure if there is anyone who knows everything there is to know about this impending oil crisis too. However, I am fairly certain that the hybrid cars wouldn't be a prospective solution to the problem; not at least for a few more years.

One would notice a massive influx of hybrid cars on the roads today and yet, did nothing to help put a dent in the oil problems; but instead made a quandary with regards to car-pooling. As early as January 2005, hybrids car owners were allowed to use car pool lanes, even when driving alone. Given the fact that thousands of hybrid cars have been sold since 1999, some of the car pool lanes are becoming more congested than the regular traffic lanes they're supposed to lighten.

According to a compiled report for the past eight years made by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the pervasive presence of the supposedly fuel economy cars have saved only a measly total of 5.5 million oil barrels. It's a rather distressing contrast against the approximate 8.5 million barrels a day to power the present usage of the light, private vehicles. But even then, researchers are very optimistic with regards to fuel economy cars. They have concluded that for fuel economy cars to have an impact, they have to at least cover more than 50% of the car population in the United States. And given the growing sales of these fuel economy cars, it's just a matter of time.

On a more personal note, can fuel economy cars help you cut back on gasoline consumption? Yes they could, depending on your driving habits. However, if you consider the initial cost of the hybrids, you may want to reconsider buying one. One of the biggest challenges of the fuel economy cars is that it takes so long to repay that extra expense of purchasing them. Even in the best-case scenario (as with one of the most popular hybrids, the Toyota Prius), five years time is already considered lucky. One could purchase a standard 4-cylinder Toyota for a much lower price and the fuel economy on these models are just outstanding. Again, this will all depend on you're driving habits. Personally, being a city driver, I get excellent mileage with my four cylinder.

So what is your reasoning to purchase a fuel economy car? Is it for the environmental aspects? Whatever it may be, personally I wouldn't purchase a hybrid car for purely economic reasons.
Kerry Ng
Kerry Ng is a successful Webmaster and publisher of The Golf Training Tips Blog. Click here for more helpful information about Golf Training Tips: http://www.mygolftrainingtips.com/fitness-training-for-golf

Electric And Hybrid Cars: A History Far from being a modern conception, electric cars were among the first vehicles on the road...

Gas Saving Devices You Should Avoid And Why

By: Gregg Hall

Most gas saving devices available in the market may actually save gas but on the other hand may adversely affect the quality of gas emission. The EPA describes these devices as below: "Indicated a very small improvement in fuel economy but with an increase in exhaust emissions. According to Federal regulations, installation of this device could be considered illegal tampering"



Let's now look at a set of products that you should ideally stay away from.



Fuel-Max



In June 1981, EPA tested this device manufactured by Fuel Injection Development Corporation. This is an air bleed device. The EPA test results showed a mere increase in mileage in the range of 1.6% to 4.0%. Although the product showed decrease in carbon monoxide emission and also considerable reduction in hydro-carbon generation, it showed substantial increase in the emission of Nitrogen Oxide, which eventually brought the product down.



Waag-Injection System



In Waag Injection system a reservoir of a 50% mixture of water and alcohol is used in the combustion chamber. The EPA conclusions are as follows:



"In summary, throughout all three phases of the test work reported on the W/A Waag-Injection system, significant increases were found in fuel economy; however corresponding increases were found in regulated emissions, both as measured from the vehicles manufacturer's specifications.



It should be noted that although the fuel economy increases observed were statistically significant under controlled laboratory conditions, the magnitudes of these increases were small. The magnitudes of the corresponding and also statistically significant increases in regulated emissions were larger and require further development to eliminate."



ACDS Automotive Cylinder Deactivation System



Finally, the ACDS Automotive Cylinder Deactivation System was meant to deactivate 4 of the 8 cylinders in an eight cylinder engine. It was tested by the EPA in 1981.

The EPA conclusions are as follows:



1. "The operation of a vehicle on four cylinders through the use of the ACDS hardware did cause a substantial increase in vehicle emissions to levels exceeding the applicable 1979 standards. Co-emissions were typically increased several times to levels near or above the standards.



2. NOx emissions were typically twice the standard. These emissions violate the tampering provisions of the Clean Air Act."



3. "The operation of a vehicle on 4 cylinders through the use of ACDS hardware did improve fuel economy 5 to 16% for FTP and 3 to 20% for HFET for those 8 cylinder vehicles tested, but with the associated emission increases described above."



4. "The vehicles had poor drivability when using the ACDS to operate on 4 cylinders.



5. Vehicle acceleration times were substantially increased when the vehicles were operated with 4 cylinders using ACDS. The acceleration times were typically double the comparable times for 8 cylinder operation.



6. The operation of a vehicle on 4 cylinders cause a serious loss of breaking power assistance under some driving conditions.



The EPA website provides comprehensive information on what product to use and what not. It is important that as a consumer you do not get fooled by the long drawn testimonials that all promotional material include.

Author Resource:-> Gregg Hall is an author living on the Emerald Coast of Florida. Now that you know a little more about gas saving devices be sure that you get gas saving products by going to http://www.nsearch.com

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World’s Cheapest Cars

The much-awaited people's car from Tata Motors is supposed to be the world's cheapest car as of today. Nano has a 624 cc engine, four doors and a mileage of 23 kilometers per liter and comes in three different versions including one with air conditioning. Power steering is provided in a Nano. Nano would be available in two deluxe models and a standard model.

Contrary to the criticisms faced pre-launch, Tata Nano satisfies all safety standards and emission laws with an emission lower than that of a two-wheeler. It hits the market at a price of one lakh rupees, which is equivalent to two thousand five hundred US dollars as promised by Ratan Tata, which is the dealer price. The buyer has to bear other expenses like Value Added Tax and transportation expenses. In spite of it, Tata Nano stands as the cheapest car in the world. Chery QQ3 is the second cheapest car with a price of five thousand dollars, which hit the market in 2003.

It is a city car manufactured by Chery Automobile, the Chinese manufacturer that is a household name of the Chinese passenger car industry. Chery QQ3 is equipped with an antilock brake system, dual front airbags, power windows and a Euro III compliant Engine along with air-conditioning.

Chery QQ3 is a sleek looking car with a lot of storage area and comes with a five-door hatch back. Maruthi 800 has reined the world of small cars in India for over two decades since 1983. Maruthi came as an alternative to Ambassador and Fiat for people who craved for a change in their cars. Manufactured by Maruthi Suzuki India Ltd, this car is available for 5200 US dollars and comes in both air-conditioned and non air-conditioned versions.

Maruthi 800, as the name suggests, has an 800 cc engine and is a four seater and has a great fuel efficiency and low maintenance cost. It is easy to drive in the heavy traffic due to its small size and low turning radius. South East Asia and South America and many more countries are all importers of Maruthi 800 cars.

Geely Automobile makes Merrie Star, which is a China based manufacturing company. It is a four-door Sedan car and is priced at 5500 US dollars.
Launched in 2005, Merrie Star is most popular among the middle-income families in China and people who buy for the first time. The manufacturers are Geely's Ningbo, Zhejiang factories and the car has an engine size, which ranges from 1.0 to 1.3 liters and is exported to south East Asia and Africa.

The next in the list of cheapest cars is the HQ or Haoqing S-RV or commonly known as S-RV mini SUV which belongs to the HQ series by Geely Automobile, China.
This car is a great companion due to its unique character of five doors and five-seat capacity.
S-RV Mini SUV car is equipped with adjustable pitches seats, state of the art security system and a luxurious dashboard. The basic price of the car is priced at 5780 US dollars. The upgraded version includes additional features such as air-conditioning, central locking and power steering.Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, Fiat and many more are also programmed to make cheep small cars as more people now prefer cheaper and energy efficient cheap cars.


About the Author
Visit http://www.tatananoonline.net to know how the world's cheapest car - Tata Nano - was built and how to buy it online.

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