If you find at the end of each month that your gas and electricity bills are of a magnitude more akin to a small country than a small home, then you need to start taking a long hard look at how energy efficient you are being.

Perhaps most important of all is your refrigerator. Fridges and freezers account for 18 per cent of the total energy consumption of a household. Nearly one fifth of your gas and electricity is being spent keeping your food chilled, so this one major place you can make energy efficient to save money.

One of the best ways to ensure your fridge is energy efficient is simply to buy a new fridge. Buying a more efficient fridge will be more expensive initially but will save you more money in the long run. Getting the right size of fridge is key to energy efficiency. Larger fridges will consume more energy, so only buy the fridge size that you need. Having said that, one large fridge is much better than two small fridges, so think carefully about how much space you need and purchase wisely.

If you can't afford to buy a new fridge, there are a number of things you can do to reduce your gas and electricity bills at the end of the month. Placing your fridge correctly will stop needless energy wastage. If your fridge is next to the oven, washing machine or dishwasher, the heat radiating from these appliances will mean the fridge has to work harder to keep cool, using more energy. Similarly, placing your fridge anywhere near direct sunlight only makes it trickier to keep stuff cool, so a cool dry spot in your kitchen is ideal.

Adjusting the temperature of your fridge can help save a lot of energy, just by tweaking up the thermostat by a degree of so. Some freezers, for example, can be set to extremely low temperatures of -24°C, whereas keeping the freezer set to around -18°C is more than enough to freeze your produce. Similarly, fridges can be set from anything between 3°C and 6°C but keeping temperatures at the higher end of the recommended scale will require less energy and save you money.

Finally, defrosting your freezer regularly to prevent frost building up around the coils in your unit will keep the appliance running smoothly. When frost builds up the compressor has to run for much longer in order to achieve the colder temperatures, so keeping your freezer frost-free is really important to save on your <a onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/"> gas and electiricity</a> bills.

About the Author:

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