How to make your home more energy efficient
How to make your home more energy efficient
The cost of heating your home can be expensive, according to figures by Ofgem, the average variable yearly tariff for a dual fuel customer was circa £1,255 (May 2019). It therefore pays to look at ways to cut back on your spending. A good option to take is to scour the market for the very best deals from energy suppliers and move to a more competitive tariff if one’s available to you.
There are of course other steps you can take to help cut the amount of electricity and gas you use to heat your home to help make your home more energy efficient.
How to save energy at home?
Here are 25 home energy saving tips that could help you to make HUGE savings and make your home more energy efficient:
- Smart thermostat
Smart thermostats have tons of features to make it easy to heat your home more effectively. They can give you control of all your rooms and some even offer geofencing functions which essentially allow you to track when you leave or enter your home. They can also detect draughts and have holiday modes and provide feedback on your heating usage so you can get a clearer picture of what you’re using and when. - Turn down your heating
By turning down your heating by just a degree you could save around £80 a year on your energy bill! With it being only a few degrees, you probably won’t notice the difference and you’ll be saving money at the same time! - Add more clothing
Instead of cranking up the heating when a cold weather front hits, try putting on more layers around the house. Most people just wear thin tops of t-shirts around the house, by putting on a jumper and slippers you should start feeling more comfortable in the house even if the temperature in the house is a bit lower than normal. At night time you could also add another blanked to keep you warmer and avoid whacking on the heating at night. - Switch off your radiators
It’s crazy to pay to heat rooms in your house that you don’t use. Is there a spare room or study that no one uses? Turning off the radiators in these rooms is an affective way to save energy at home. - Don’t block your radiators
If you’re radiators are blocked off by your furniture, you can be preventing your radiators from warming up the rooms in your home as efficiently. Covering your radiators with curtains will have the same effect. - New boiler
Investing in a new boiler is a great way to save money. New condensing boilers are much more efficient than older boilers. According to Energy Saving Trust replacing a G-rated boiler with a new A-rated boiler with a room thermostat, programmer and thermostatic radiator controls could save a whopping £205 a year in a semi-detached home, and savings in a detached home are even more impressive at circa £315 a year! - Turn off your appliances at the mains
Did you know that quite a few appliances use electricity even when they’re on standby mode? Not turning off your appliances at the plug after they’ve been used could cost you around £30 a year, so it makes sense to start switching off your electricals at the plug when they’re no longer in use. - Replace old tech
When you need to replace old household appliances, from your TV to your washing machine – you should look out for models with high energy efficiency ratings. With large appliances like fridges, you could save tons in electricity costs if you opt for an A+++ model instead of a less efficient fridge. - Cut down on your water consumption
Installing an aerated showerhead, you can save around £20 per person each year on your energy bill. You can also get shower timers and more efficient water taps, dishwashers, washing machines and even toilets! - Energy efficient lighting
By replacing halogen light bulbs with LED lights you could save around £2 a year, which doesn’t sound like a lot but when you think about the amount of bulbs you have in your house it soon adds up. - Think about your lighting
Try to get into the habit of turning off the lights every time you leave a room. To make it easier you could move the light switches to a more convenient location. Timers and sensors are great for outdoor lights, they’re easy to forget to turn off once you’ve left the space you’re in particularly the ones outside of your home will all help to make your home more energy efficient. - Stick your clothes on a lower temp
Washing your clothes 10 degrees lower can have a huge impact on both the environment and your wallet. Another top tip is try only putting your washing machine on when you have a full load of clothes to wash, rather than washing a few items of clothing each day. Going down to one wash a week could save around £10 a year off your electricity bill and will help make your home more energy efficient. - Dry your clothes outside
It’s best to dry your clothes outside on windy or warm days instead of putting your tumbler dryer on. - Let your food cool down before putting it in the fridge
Not only is it bad from a food hygiene perspective, putting in warm food into the fridge will make your fridge work hard to ensure it’s at the right temperature, increasing its electrical consumption. Other top tips include defrosting the freezer regularly to prevent ice build up and ensuring that you don’t leave the fridge door open for longer than you need. - Making brews
Only fill up the kettle with the water you’re going to use. Being more careful with the amount of water you put in could save you around £8 a year in electricity. - Batch cook
Not only will this save you time cooking other meals later in the week it will also cut down on your energy usage. Another top tip is to turn your oven off a couple of minutes before your food is ready, the residual heat will finish cooking your food. - Fit double glazed windows
Did you know that approximately 18% of the heat lost through homes is through your windows? Replacing single glazed windows, with double glazing could have a massive impact on your bills. Installing double glazing in a detached house could save anywhere between £120 – £160 a year in heating costs. - If that’s too expensive, consider a cheaper alternative
Double glazing can be expensive, you could look at getting secondary glazing as a cheaper alternative. You could also look at your curtains and blinds, ensuring they’re well-fitted can help reduce heat loss through your windows. - Draught-proof your home
Draughts can drive up your heating bills, to prevent this you should seal any gaps around your windows and doors and fill any cracks in your floors or skirting boards. If you have an unused chimney, you should look at blocking it. - Wall insulation
Did you know that a third of all heat lost in uninsulated homes goes through your walls? Depending on the type of walls you have (cavity/solid), this will affect the type of wall insulation you can get installed. If you don’t know what type of insulation you have, you should ask for expert advice. - Roof insulation
Did you know that a quarter of heat in an uninsulated home is lost via the roof? If you have easy access to your loft and have no damp problems, it’s quite a simple process and you could even do it yourself getting rolls of mineral wool to put down in your loft/attic - Hot water pipes
Insulate your hot water pipes! If they’re uninsulated it could reduce the efficiency of your central heating system. By insulating your hot water pipes you’ll stand more chance of saving money on your hot water and heating. - Renewable energy
You might want to think about installing renewable energy solutions to reduce your reliance on mains energy. There’s tons of options out there! From Solar PV panels, solar thermal, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and even small-scale wind turbines. You can even make money from your renewable energy; you can export it to the grid and get payments if you have surplus electricity! Not only is it amazing for the planet it will reduce your energy bills and generate you a bit of income at the same time and will help make your home more energy efficient. - Smart meter
Installing a smart meter will help you keep track of your energy usage and spend and will help you to spot ways to lower your energy spend. It will also help to make your energy bills more accurate and the beauty of them is, they’re free! - Educate
If you spend a bit of time educating the people that life in your household on how to save energy at home you can ensure everyone adopts energy saving habits – which will be amazing news for your energy bills in the long term.
Who Are Thermatic Energy Services?
We work with end-user clients to help them achieve their energy management targets. Our support ranges from Install, monitoring and compliance to procurement. Our main focus is giving our customers visibility to their systems and data to allow them to make actionable decisions to reduce their energy consumption, improve their building operation and achieve their sustainability targets.
