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Energy Saving Tips

Simply follow the energy saving measures below, and you should see a great return on your investment, both financially and environmentally.

Being energy efficient can cut as much as £340 off your annual energy bill and reduce your household's carbon dioxide emissions by around 1.5 tonnes.

Here are some ways to get started:

1. Stop 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. You can install draught proofing yourself.

Draughts also get in through gaps in floorboards and skirting boards, which also allow heat to escape in winter. Stop this waste by filling these gaps with newspaper, beading or sealant.

2. Use energy saving light bulbs
Switch to energy saving light bulbs. They last around 10 times longer than ordinary light bulbs, and each bulb you fit could save around £45 over its lifetime - or up to £70 if you are replacing a bright incandescent bulb, or one used for more than a few hours a day. Early low energy bulbs were gloomy, slow to start up and tended to flicker — but modern bulbs give good quality lighting effects, including ‘softone’, and some come in dimmable versions. They cost more to buy but cost much less to run.

3. Put a tank jacket on your hot water cylinder
Insulate your hot water tank with a jacket - it only costs a few pounds and, with all the heat it traps in, it pays for itself within months. Fit one that's at least 75mm (3") thick on an uninsulated tank and you could save around £40 a year. If every UK household that could fitted an adequate tank-jacket tomorrow, we'd save £170 million of energy every year!

Insulate hot water pipes
 
Hot water pipes lose heat right the way along, so insulate them wherever you can with pre-formed foam pipe insulation — make sure you insulate the pipes at the top of the cylinder for a distance of at least 1m (3'3").

4. Insulate Your Loft
Insulating your loft is one of the simplest ways to save energy - you can even install it yourself. Insulate your loft today and in a year you could save around £205 or £60 if you're topping up.

Find out more about loft insulation


5. Insulate wall cavities
Uninsulated walls are a big source of heat loss in the home. You could save around £160 on energy bills each year by insulating your wall cavities. It also creates an even temperature in your home. If we all filled our wall cavities, we'd save around £860 million-worth of energy a year.


6. Switch to high-efficiency boilers
If your boiler is over 15 years old it's probably time to replace it. By law, new gas boilers in England and Wales must now be of the high efficiency condensing type, which can help you save up to a third on your heating bills and even more if you upgrade to modern controls as well.


7. Energy Efficient Appliances
When purchasing new appliances, always look for the Energy Saving Recommended logo. Energy Saving Recommended appliances are the most efficient in their category and could save you up to £39 a year.


8. Install double glazing

Double glazing cuts heat loss through windows by 50% and could cut your heating bill by around £140 a year.


9. Home Electronics – turn them off

Pressing the ’off’ button on the remote control only switches a TV, DVD Player, Radio etc. to stand-by and it still uses electricity. Pressing the ‘off’ button on the unit itself or at the switch ensures that you are not wasting electricity.


10. Setting controls for efficient heating performance

You may have a thermostat on the wall of the living room or the hall which controls the boiler system.
 
Experiment to find the lowest setting that suits your needs. 18°C (65°F) may be enough for you but people who aren’t very active or are unwell may need a setting of 23°C (73°F).

Adjust your heating controls (lowering temperatures from 22ºC to 20ºC could reduce your heating costs by as much as 15%)