Energy Saving Tips

Save energy

Simple actions reduce both fuel bills and CO2 emissions. Making your home as energy efficient as possible could save you over £300 a year. Read on to see more of the changes you can make and the money you’ll save by doing them.

Insulating your home

Most UK homes don’t have the recommended amount of insulation. By properly insulating your home you could save £180 a year on your heating bills. What’s more, cutting down the energy your home wastes will help tackle climate change at the same time. That’s because home energy use is responsible for over a quarter of all emissions of CO2.

Put a jacket on your hot water tank

Fitting your hot water tank with an insulating jacket will only cost a few pounds and, with all the heat it traps, it pays for itself within six months. Fit one that’s at least 75mm (3 inches) thick and you could save around £30 a year. If every UK household that could fitted an adequate tank-jacket tomorrow, it would save over £132 million of energy every year.

Insulate your loft

Around half the heat lost in a typical home escapes through the walls and the roof. Insulating your loft is simple to do and you can even install the insulation yourself. Even if you already have loft insulation, check its thickness. Adding another layer to bring it up to the recommended 270mm will save both energy and money being wasted.

Fill your wall cavities

Around a third of the heat lost in a house without insulation is through the walls. You could save up to £120 on your energy bills each year by insulating your wall cavities. Installation takes just a couple of hours for a typical family home and can be done from the outside. If everyone in the UK filled their wall cavities, it would save around £670 million of energy a year.

Dodge the draughts

Eliminate draughts and wasted heat by installing a cheap, easy-to-fix brush or PVC seal on your exterior doors. Letterboxes and keyholes should be covered too. Draughts also get in through gaps in floorboards and skirting boards, which allow heat to escape in winter. Stop this waste by filling these gaps with beading or sealant.

Energy saving light bulbs

An energy efficient bulb produces less CO2 and can save up to £60 in electricity over its lifetime. Energy saving bulbs work in standard fittings and lamps, and are widely available at low prices (including in supermarkets). You can buy ones that look similar to old-style bulbs and give out the same coloured light, and some are available for use with dimmer switches. Energy saving bulbs still use energy, so remember to keep them switched off when not in use.

Switching off

Turning things off when you’re not using them is the cheapest and easiest way of all to save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

Don’t leave it on standby

If everyone in the UK switched off unused appliances it would save £800 million a year. Leaving appliances plugged in and switched on at the socket means they’re still using energy – so turn TVs, games consoles and mobile phone chargers off at the mains to save yourself money.

Turn off the lights

£140 million a year is wasted through leaving lights on in unused rooms, so always turn off the lights when you leave a room.

Take control of your heating

You can avoid heating an empty house by using the timer so your central heating is switched off when nobody’s home. If you have radiator valves, you can also turn off radiators in rooms that aren’t being used. And if you’d like to cut your heating bills by up to 10 per cent, just turn your central heating down by one degree.