We put popular electricity and heating-saving hacks to the test

Are you really saving money on your electricity and heating bills with these practices?

When painting your radiator, avoid metallic paints which can cut efficiency by up to 16%. Service the boiler, bleed the radiators and keep the area around the radiator clear to let it function well. Pictures: iStock

Smart meters offer the best time-of-use tariffs (TOU)

Actually, as an early adopter, and although I really hate to say it — no, this is curiously not the case at the time of writing. Smart meters offer you very useful real-time information about your usage, and can certainly offer ways to save on the bill by moving your load to cheaper times of the day.