TIP:

Are you paying to heat the air outside your house? If you don’t have loft insulation you could be losing 15% of your heating costs through your roof, that’s equivalent to about a 1 tonne of CO₂ emissions each year. Invest in cavity wall and loft insulation and you could reduce your energy bills by £1 per day. To encourage UK households to become more efficient the government is offering grants to cover 50% off the cost of insulation.

Boilers have come a long way in recent years and the new energy efficient condensing boilers use 40% less fuel than traditional models. Although the cost of upgrading your boiler sounds expensive it will generally pay for itself within 3-5 years by cutting your heating bill by around £270 per year. British Gas fitted 100,000 energy efficient boilers in the last year and is championing the Ecogen boiler which uses cutting edge Micro-CHP technology to potentially deliver 50% energy savings.

Nobody wants to live in a cold house but turning down your thermostat by just 1°C this winter could reduce your carbon emissions by over 300kg and save you as much as £65 on your heating bills. Go one step further and turn your heating down by 5°C at night to save around 10% of your annual energy bill while you stay warm and cozy under the duvet.

Don’t waste money heating empty rooms, turn off radiators in seldom-used rooms or (even better) switch to thermostatic valves and see energy savings of around £10 per year cutting your carbon emissions by 90kg. Make your radiators work smarter by placing a sheet of silver foil behind them to reflect the heat back into the room.

Britain might not be the sunniest country but we have more than enough dry and windy days to blow the cobwebs from your laundry and air-dry your clothes. Cut down your tumble drier’s workload and you could save £45 per year on your electricity bill. Cut even more carbon emissions from your drier by switching to a 30°C wash cycle. Washing at 30°C instead of 40°C can reduce your washing machine’s energy consumption by up to 40%.

Microwaves are far more energy efficient than conventional ovens because all the energy goes into heating the food, rather than heating your oven. Typically a microwave will use a third less energy and cooks food in a fraction of the time. The benefits of cooking with a microwave are less impressive if you use them to heat microwave ready meals because producing the packaging will have consumed more energy than you will save by using your microwave.

With the upcoming digital switchover many people are looking to replace old TV sets. For an energy efficient option choose an Integrated Digital TV with a built-in digital receiver eliminating the need for a separate set top box, saving £7 per year and 20kg of CO₂ emissions. For even greater energy savings remember to turn your TV off at the switch rather than leaving it on standby, the average household wastes £35 per year by leaving things on standby.

Our kitchens are full of labour saving devices to make our lives easier but the power they use adds up to make the kitchen one of the least energy efficient rooms in the house. Make a difference to the energy output of your kitchen by thinking about the appliances you use. Don’t run your dishwasher half-full, resist the temptation to open the oven door while your cooking and only boil the amount of water you need rather than filling the kettle.

Leaving your computer and its accessories on standby is costing you around £11 per year. Switch everything off (including the power to your network connection) and you’ll save money and prolong the life of your equipment. Make using your computer more energy efficient by turning off any screensavers and setting the time elapsed before your monitor goes to sleep to 1 minute.

Badly fitting windows and doors are responsible for around 20% of the heat lost in a typical home. Fitting draught proofing to your doors and windows could save £25 per year on your heating bill and keep your home free from annoying draughts. Draught proofing is an easy DIY job and the cost savings should pay for the outlay in only 3 years.

There are roughly 45 million mobile phone users in the UK with at least that many mobile phone chargers in regular use. Unfortunately phone chargers still use energy if they’re left plugged in even if the phone isn’t attached. Unplug your phone charger when it’s not in use and save energy. Next time you replace your mobile phone recycle your old handset and reduce the number of phones that end up as landfill.

Energy saving light bulbs last 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs and use one quarter as much energy. Next time you need to change a bulb switch to an energy saving option and save between £45 and £70 on your energy bill over the lifetime of the bulb. For an instant energy saving tip make an extra effort to remember to turn lights off when you leave the room