<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">A PLUMBER has revealed how a little-known trick to use when running your taps could help you to slash your energy bills.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">TikTok user thesharmaniacs regularly shares his best hacks on the social media app where he has more than followers.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">In a recent video, the plumber explained how households are pouring money down the drain by waiting for the hot tap to heat up.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">It comes as energy bills soar to&nbsp;&pound;, for the typical household&nbsp;meaning many will be worried they about their energy use.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">The handyman runs a tap and puts a timer on his iPhone, showing how it took seconds for the water get warm.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">He said: Many of you wash your hands with the hot tap, and by the time you ve finished, the water s still not warm.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">As soon as you open your hot tap, the boiler comes on and it s heating up the water as it s going through.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">If you re finished washing your hands after seconds - and you ve not felt any of the hot water being produced - you ve just wasted seconds worth of gas.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">The plumber recommends washing your hands straight away, with soap, rather than waiting for the tap to heat up.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">And some experts say that washing your hands with cold water and soap leaves hands just as clean as hot water.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">According experts at Utilita, you also can cut your bills just by turning the hot water temperature down.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">You don t need your hot water to be above C, and for every degree above that you re wasting &pound; a year.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">First you need to check what kind of&nbsp;boiler&nbsp;you have - you can do this by looking at the operating manual.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">If you have a combi boiler with an eco mode, make sure it s set to this as this will stop your water overheating.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">One controls your central heating, which you can leave, and the other sets your hot water tap temperature.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Households with system or regular boilers can still turn down the temperature, but every control panel will vary.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Both of these systems include a water tank, so you ll also need to check the minimum heat requirements on the&nbsp;Health and Safety Executive website.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Hot water storage cylinders should store water at C or higher to prevent Legionella bacteria growing, which can make you sick.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">You should always contact a qualified Gas Safe engineer if you are not confident in making changes, or if you have any concerns with your boiler.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Once you ve turned the temperature down, you can test it with a thermometer as it comes out of the tap.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">A cheap way of putting on the heating is by only turning the&nbsp;radiators&nbsp;on in the rooms you are using.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">How much you can save varies on a number of factors, such as how big your house is and what energy tariff you are on, for example.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">But savvy saver Scott Dixon told The Sun&nbsp;he s saved &pound;&nbsp;from just turning the heating on in his lounge.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Putting foil behind your radiator could&nbsp;save you &pound; a year, according to British Gas engineer Joanna Flowers.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">The payment is dished out by your energy supplier and is split across six discounts between October and March next year.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Households will receive a &pound; energy bill discount in October and November and a discount worth &pound; in December, January, February and March.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">A &pound; one-off Pensioner Cost of Living Payment will be paid out to eight million households this month.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">It will be given to those who already get the winter fuel payment - which is worth between &pound; and &pound; for those over the state pension age.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">Millions of households are also in line to get the &pound; Warm Home Discount between December and March .</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">British Gas has recently confirmed that it ll pay its most vulnerable customers&nbsp;grants worth &pound; to help with sky-high bills.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">There s also&nbsp;a one-off fuel voucher from your energy supplier&nbsp;if you re on a prepayment metre.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">If you re in debt there are plenty of services you can take advantage of and they offer free and friendly advice on how to manage debt.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #777777; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;">They can also help you take the next steps if you need a debt management plan DMP to tackle your debt or an Individual Voluntary Arrangement IVA. These are agreements for managing multiple debts.</p>