As temperatures continue to drop, many people will be toying with the idea of putting the heating on.

But, with search volumes up 60% for "are energy bills going up?", and searches climbing for "help towards my energy bills", families across the UK are looking for ways to protect their household budgets.

With the recent 10% energy price cap increase from Ofgem kicking off at the start of October, British households will have to fork out even more cash to heat their homes this winter. With this price cap expected to increase bills by £12 every month, this equates to nearly £150 extra a year.

Luckily, national housebuilder, St. Modwen Homes, has shared four simple hacks that can help slash your energy bills by more than £550 this winter, and some of them are already going viral online. If you want to be ahead of the game, there are four simple things you can do to reduce your bills.

The best part is - they're really simple to pull off. Everyone is capable of making the easy checks around their home.

Bleed your radiators ahead of colder temperatures arriving

Over time air bubbles can accumulate within radiators, meaning they do not heat up as effectively as they should. By bleeding radiators you can remove the excess air, and improve the efficiency of radiators across your home to improve your home heating without having to turn up the thermostat.

To do this, all you have to do is:

• Turn your boiler off – do this first of all and then allow sufficient time for any radiators to cool, ensuring you’re not coming into contact with boiling water.

• Get your bleed key - if you don’t have one, you can get them in most hardware DIY shops.

• Open the bleed valve - use your key to turn the valve a quarter turn anti-clockwise. Position a towel or bowl underneath the valve just in case water comes out.

• Close the bleed valve - don’t worry about the hissing noise, it’s just air escaping.

• Once the hissing stops, close the valve again.

This simple hack, which takes no longer than a few minutes to do, can reduce your energy bills by up to 20%. This equates to nearly £350 a year.

Turn off standby appliances

It may sound simple, but turning off standby plugs could help save around £40 a year. Whether it’s unused lamps or kitchen appliances like toasters and kettles, switching off appliances at the wall, rather than leaving them on standby, helps reduce energy outputs.

If you struggle to remember to do this every day, purchasing smart plugs and timers can manage this automatically. You could also set yourself a daily reminder on your smartphone or smart home technology.

Don’t heat empty rooms for the sake of it

Most, if not all, UK homes will have a radiator in every room of the house, but not all rooms will be in use all the time. For example, you may have a spare bedroom that is untouched for most of the week, or perhaps a bathroom that only gets used when guests come over.

It’s important to turn radiators off in the most-unused rooms of the house. This simple hack can slash Brits' energy bills by 4.5% - that's an extra £50 off!

Heat yourself up, not the room temperature

All of the previous hacks are aimed at reducing energy usage, or being smarter with how your energy is used throughout your home. However, it is possible to get by without turning your energy on at all - as long as you’re savvy and don’t mind layering up at home.

A one-off payment for an electric blanket will mean you’re warm at night and can cost as little as 3p an hour to use, in comparison to a whopping 22p per hour for standard energy supplies.

Calculating the differences in cost, using an electric blanket instead of turning the heating on over the winter months would save you £136.80. With an electric blanket costing as little as £24.99, that works out as over £110 in savings.