Pensioners saving £201-a-year by making one simple change at home

Pensioners facing a tough winter after losing their £300 Winter Fuel Payment are being advised how to potentially save hundreds of pounds by making a simple household switch. As energy prices rise by another £149, state pensioners are looking to do whatever they can to save cash.

Home appliance experts are encouraging people to make one lightbulb change. Many households across the country are still using Halogen lights, reports Express.c.o.uk.

They were banned from sale by the EU in 2018 but residents stocked up before they were pulled from shelves and many homes still have them in their kitchens, bedrooms, hallways and bathrooms as they last for years before they need replacing. But even if you have Halogen bulbs that haven’t gone out yet, you should still swap them - because LED bulbs are much cheaper to run.

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A regular Halogen bulb costs £225 to run through its lifetime of 24,000 hours at 26p per unit, whereas an LED bulb run for the same amount of time costs £24. That difference is PER bulb, so if you replaced ten Halogen bulbs, you’d save not just £201, but £2,010, over the course of their lifetime.

The saving is because LEDs work differently to Halogen. Halogen bulbs produce heat, and light is simply a by product - and this is a good way to tell if you have a Halogen bulb if you’re not sure. If the bulb is extremely hot to the touch after running for an hour or so, it’s probably Halogen, whereas LEDs never get burning hot.

The Green Age says: “LEDs last 12 to 15 times longer, they use 90 per cent less energy and so overall contribute to enormous savings on your electricity bills – so what are you waiting for? The reason for these savings is because halogen bulbs, much like traditional incandescent bulbs produce light as a byproduct when they get hot. LED bulbs however work differently – providing light as electrons pass through a semi conductive material, so first and foremost they produce light far more efficiently.”