You can cut your energy bills by £500 a year with this device | Personal Finance | Finance

Households have been encouraged to look at upgrading to a device to save £500 a year on energy bills.

Experts at energy tech provider Aira Group claim you can get big savings on your bills by switching to a heat pump.

Pamela Brown, chief marketing officer with the company, explained the benefits of switching from a boiler to a heat pump: “The typical household can cut their energy bill by over £500 per year, while significantly lowering carbon emissions by at least 75%.

“Thousands of households across England and Wales have already made the switch with support from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which offers grants of up to £7,500.”

The scheme can provide up to one grant per property, with funding available such as £7,500 towards an air source heat pump or towards a ground source heat pump. You can also get £5,000 towards a boimass boiler.

Ms Brown said: “The scheme is installer-led and at Aira, we help customers with the paperwork, making it fast, simple, and hassle-free for people to remove gas heating from their homes in favour of a clean heat alternative.”

Looking ahead, recent predictions from BFY Group suggest the energy price cap could drop 7% from July, with average energy bills dropping from £1,849 a year to £1,715 a year, a drop of £134.

Matt Turner-Tait, senior manager at BFY Group, said: “This reflects recent declines in wholesale gas and electricity prices and will provide some short-term relief for households on standard variable tariffs.

“While energy prices typically dip in summer due to reduced demand, market signals indicate that prices could stay at current levels through the winter as well, challenging expectations of the usual seasonal rebound.”

He said consumers are increasingly switching to fixed tariffs as they currently offer the best deals. He said: “More energy customers have been switching to fixed tariffs, which are always cheaper than the price cap, and are currently significantly so – by around £250 to £300 for a typical customer.

“While the gap between fixed deals and the capped rate may narrow as the price cap falls, fixed tariffs are still expected to offer savings in the near term.”

Energy savings experts at Electric Radiators Direct also recently suggested a simple way that people can save on their energy bills.

They have urged people to make sure they turn off their devices rather than leaving them on standby, as this can needlessly add £145 a year to your bills.

Stephen Hankinson, from Electric Radiators Direct, said: “Its sounds so simple but switching your appliances off at the wall really is the best way to ensure you’re not spending your hard-earned income on keeping things in standby mode.

“The cost of a couple of coffees might not concern you however, £145 is a big food shop, two tanks of petrol or even a nice meal out. There really are much better ways to use this money than giving it to the energy companies.”