Clocks going back leads to bills increase
27/10/2014
The clocks going back one hour in October each year adds £630 million to the nation's winter energy bills.
A study by B&Q has claimed that the switch back to Greenwich Mean Time at the end of October each year adds £24 to a typical households annual energy bill. The switch means as it gets darker in the evenings, households are more likely to turn their lights on sooner, leading to more energy being used.
The calculation assumes the household uses 30 lightbulbs and is based on survey evidence that most homes have a mixture of traditional incandescent lightbulbs, energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, halogen lights and a few LED lights.
The survey believes If a household switched entirely to LED lights, the extra hour's winter lighting would cost them just £2.47.
Matt Sexton, B&Q’s director of CSR, said:
“We can’t change the fact that the clocks go back, we can’t change the fact that we’ll be leaving our lights on for longer, but we can change a light bulb.
"Switching to LED light bulbs is such an easy and sure fire way of cutting down our energy bills with minimal effort."
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