Latest news with #households
The Sun
16 hours ago
- Climate
- The Sun
Our ultimate guide to keeping cool as temperatures soar – from the cost of running a fan and air con to wet floor hack
BARBECUES are sizzling, pub gardens are packed and ice cream vans are out in force - but how do you keep cool for less this summer? Here's our ultimate guide to keeping cool on a budget as the mercury is set to reach the high 20s and low 30s this weekend. 7 Plenty of us will be enjoying the 28C heat today — and more sunshine is on its way. Households are in for hot weather this weekend, with temperatures set to soar to a whopping 34C by Monday. An official heatwave is declared when an area hits specific temperature thresholds for three days in a row . That threshold is 25°C for the north and west of the UK, and 28°C for Greater London and the Home Counties. While the Met Office has issued no weather warnings, experts have urged households to keep cool and check in on friends, family and neighbours, especially if they are vulnerable. So how can you cool off for less? We explain how much it costs to run the most popular gadgets to keep you cool - and other ways to ward off high temperatures. Running fan - up to 84p a week Fans are a great way of keeping cool for less. They're cheaper alternatives to pricier methods like air con. How much they cost to run depends on various factors like the model, how much energy they use, and how long you have it on for. A 60W pedestal fan costs 1.5p an hour to run. If you ran it for eight hours overnight, that would cost 12p, which racks up to 84p for a week. A 35W desktop fan costs 0.9p an hour to run. Running it overnight would cost 7.2p, which would cost 50.4p for a week. Want to keep cool on the move? A handheld fan costs 0.08p to run an hour, so having it switched on for six hours over the day would cost 0.48p. Cost of air con - £14.42 a week 7 It may be tempting to reach for your air conditioning unit during balmy weather. But it could be more expensive to run than you think. A portable air con unit which runs on 1kW of power costs 25.73p to run per hour. If you used it for eight hours overnight, that costs £2.06, which totals £14.42 a week. If you're looking for an alternative that won't cost a penny, why not try a cold hot water bottle? Instead of filling your hot water bottle up with boiling water, fill it up with cold water instead. This will help you keep cool during the evening. You could even stick it in the freezer to get it even colder. Paddling pool - £14 7 Paddling pools usually fly off the shelves as temperatures sizzle, and are a fun way for the family to keep cool. Some pools on the high street are selling for under £10, but while that seems a bargain, costs can rack up when you come to filling it up. It costs £14 each time to fill up a 6ft wide paddling pool, according to estimates from the comparison site Uswitch. If you filled up your paddling pool with new water every weekend in July and August, which are the remaining summer months, that would cost you a whopping £126. To cut down on the number of times you're filling up your pool, buy sterilising fluid or use a filter. Sterilising fluid can be picked up for as little as £4.20 for a litre, from Sainsbury's and will help stop the growth of bacteria and algae. Or you could get a filter that you place into your pool - when we checked prices online at Amazon, we found the cheapest ones would cost around £13.00. Cover the pool - you could use bin bags - to protect the water when you're not using it. Other ways to keep cool for free Want to keep cool without breaking the bank? Try out these free hacks Mop the floor 7 Clean the house and keep cool at the same time by mopping the floor. The hack boils down to simple science. The water will absorb heat from the floor when it evaporates - and hey presto, your floor is cooler. It's just like you sweat when it's hot - it's your body's way of keeping your skin cool. TV presenter Kevin McCloud is reportedly a fan of this little-known hack. He told the Radio Times in 2022 that he learned the tip from "little old Italian men" who mopped their stone floors during hot temperatures. Defrost the freezer 7 It may not be top of your list of fun things to do this weekend, but defrosting the freezer is a great way of cooling down. The cold air from the freezer will be a welcome relief, and will circulate around the room, helping to bring down the temperature. Experts estimate that not defrosting your freezer regularly could be costing households as much as £150 a year. So it's a win for your temperature and a win for your wallet too. Little-known new build home rule 7 If you live in a new build home, the good news is that it may have been designed to keep below a certain temperature. Building regulations state that bedrooms in new build homes must not exceed temperatures above 26C overnight. That means window and door openings will be designed to close if temperatures start to soar. Unfortunately, you won't benefit if you're not in one of these new builds - but there are other ways to keep cool. For example, you can close the curtains during the day, which will help to keep your home cool into the night.
Telegraph
17 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Fears of £4bn raid on middle classes as energy debts soar
Household energy debts have topped £4bn for the first time, raising fears of a raid on the middle classes to cover the growing deficit. Total customer debt and arrears climbed to £4.15bn in the first three months of 2025, new figures from regulator Ofgem showed, up from £3.85bn in the final quarter of 2024. Energy debts have quadrupled since 2018 thanks to a toxic mix of rising gas prices and green levies that have sent bills soaring. Poorer households have been hit hardest because energy bills take up a greater proportion of their income. Growing debts are a significant problem for energy suppliers, which fund themselves through household bills. A drop in their income has raised fears that some smaller suppliers could be at risk of collapse. Ofgem launched a consultation on how to tackle the debt crisis last year, which included proposals to write off debts for the poorest households. If debts are written off, money needs to be raised from somewhere else to fill the gap. Options that are being weighed up by the regulator include extra charges on the bills of households not caught up in the crisis, levies on energy suppliers, or a mixture of both. It means millions of people could face higher bills to pay off the debts of others. The outcome of that review has not yet been published. In April, Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, raised the prospect of charging richer households more for their energy to help pay for the costs of reaching net zero. 'We want to at least ask the question whether or not we can allocate costs more progressively,' he said. Economists typically use the term progressive to mean people pay higher tax rates as their income increases. Adam Berman, director of policy at Energy UK, the trade body for energy suppliers, said: 'A certain amount of debt, the debt which there really isn't any hope of recovery, that effectively gets socialised on everyone's energy bills. 'It's in the interest of society overall that we minimise debt because ultimately the more debt that we get, the more other consumers end up having to pay for that debt.' An Ofgem spokesman said: 'We know the cost of energy remains a huge challenge for many households and the growing issue of debt is one that requires urgent action from everyone across the sector and government.' The energy regulator said it was considering the introduction of a new debt relief scheme 'that could serve as a lifeline for millions of households struggling with unmanageable debts'. Andrew Bowie, the Conservative shadow energy spokesman, said: 'Consumer debt is rising because impossible net zero targets have driven up energy bills and distracted the Government from focusing on cutting them. 'As long as Miliband remains Energy Secretary with his impossible net-zero targets, bills will continue to rise. 'The country needs a serious approach to energy policy – one that tackles the root cause of our high energy prices, rather than raising taxes to pay for sticking-plaster solutions.' Earlier this month, the boss of British Gas called for Rachel Reeves to raise taxes to pay for net zero, rather than putting the cost on energy bills. Chris O'Shea, the boss of British Gas owner Centrica, said: 'At the moment, the costs for doing [net zero] come off consumer bills. There is an option to put that on general taxation and that's something that we would support at Centrica.'
The Herald
18 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald
Despite VAT exemption, some zero-rated food prices increased in past 12 months
Of the 44 foods tracked in the basket, 19 foods increased in price. Foods that increased in price by 5% or more include onions (9%) and beef (5%). 'Households living on low incomes change their purchasing patterns in response to changes in affordability conditions,' said Abrahams. 'On low incomes, women buy the core staple foods first so that their families do not go hungry and for basic meals to be prepared. Where the money remaining is short, women have no choice but to drop foods from their trolleys or reduce the volumes of nutritionally rich foods in their trolleys.' This had negative consequences for health, wellbeing and nutrition, he said. 'As financial and economic circumstances worsen, so too does household health and nutrition. The gap between what women are able to buy and what they need to buy for proper nutrition widens.' The report states that the national minimum wage (NMW) 'is a poverty wage — it hurts workers, it reduces productivity in the workplace, and slows down economic growth. 'The maximum wage of R4,606.40 this June when disbursed in a family of four people is R1,151.60. This is below the upper-bound poverty line of R1,634 per capita per month. Set at such a low level, the NMW works to institutionalise the low-baseline wage regime and lock millions of workers into poverty. 'Small annual increments off such a low wage base (in rand value) — and which do not reflect inflation levels as experienced by workers, nor the actual cost of worker expenses — means that workers on the NMW are getting poorer each year. 'The minimum shortfall on food for a family is 48.5%. After paying for transport and electricity, workers are left with R1,963.43. If all of this money went to food, then for a family of four it would provide R490.85 per person per month. The food poverty line is R796 per person per month.' TimesLIVE
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How much are YOU overpaying on your energy bills? New calculator reveals how much users could save
Millions of households could be overpaying their energy bills, a new calculator has revealed. The average energy bill for a dual-fuel home paying by direct debit increased from £1,738-a-year to £1,849 from April 1 after a 6.4 per cent increase in Ofgem 's energy price cap. But it is set to decrease by seven per cent on July 1, meaning the UK's 35 million households on a variable tariff will see their monthly gas and electricity payments fall. A typical household will see their annual bill fall from £1,849 to £1,720 from next month. This is £660 (28 per cent) lower than at the height of the energy crisis at the start of 2023 when the Government implemented the energy price guarantee. It will be a welcome drop in costs for millions of struggling Britons who are battling the cost of living crisis. But the predicted drop is slightly less than the previously forecast nine per cent fall following an easing of trade tensions. Now, a new calculator released today can help you work out how much you may have been overpaying on your energy bills. The price cap does not limit total bills because householders still pay for the amount of energy they consume. However, news of a fall in energy costs will come as a relief for households, who suffered through an 'awful April' of bill rises. And prices remain elevated with the upcoming level £152 (10 per cent) higher than the same period last year. The number of customers switching providers plummeted during the 2021-22 energy crisis as the cost of bills shot up, with rates still significantly below pre-crisis levels. Under-pressure households have also been hit with the biggest increase to water bills since at least February 1988, alongside steep rises across bills for council tax, mobile and broadband tariffs, as well as road tax However, experts at household money-saving firm are warning that millions of households who haven't recently switched providers that they're likely to be overpaying. Greg Marsh, household finance expert and CEO of said: 'The vast majority of households are overpaying on their bills – energy included. 'Most of us have no idea how much it's costing us. Energy companies know how hard it is to make sure we're on a fair deal. 'In fact, they hope we don't notice we could be saving and put up with paying more than we need to. It's not fair, and it's exactly why we started Nous. 'We regularly save our customers hundreds of pounds a year on bills because they didn't have the time or headspace to stay on top of things, and didn't realise how much they were wasting.'
RNZ News
a day ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Consumer confidence up despite inflation worries
Photo: RNZ Consumer confidence is improving but the economic outlook remains soft, with inflation expectations rising to the highest level in more than two years. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence lifted six points to 98.8 in June, following last month's drop to 92.9. ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said a number of key indicators remained in negative territory, including the proportion of households who thought it was a good time to buy a major household appliance, at -7. In addition, annual inflation expectations rose slightly to 4.9 percent - the highest level since April 2023. "A few potential explanations seem possible," she said, including global tariff noise and concerns about energy prices. She said the increase was in line with food price inflation, which was running at 4.4 percent. "Household electricity prices are also rising as higher lines charges are passed on." However, she said a net 20 percent of consumers expected to be better off this time next year. "The economy is recovering. It's just taking a little longer than expected. "Households might be sceptical but domestic inflation is on the retreat, and that should lay the path for the RBNZ [Reserve Bank] to ultimately be able to shore up the economic recovery with a little more monetary easing." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
