Simple Ways to Reduce Household Energy Costs

Start with the draughts, not the dial

Before you spend a penny on gadgets, spend twenty minutes walking around your home on a breezy day with the back of your hand held near door frames and window edges. Most British homes lose warmth through a handful of predictable places: the gap beneath the front and back doors, the letterbox, an unused chimney, the meeting rails of sash windows, and the join where a suspended floor meets the skirting board. These are cheap to fix and the difference is felt the same evening.

• Door draughts. A brush or rubber strip fitted along the bottom of a door costs a few pounds and takes ten minutes with a hacksaw and a screwdriver. A fabric sausage draught excluder does the same job for a spare bedroom door that is rarely used.
• Letterboxes and keyholes. A flap with a brush surround, plus a small keyhole cover, stops a surprising amount of cold air tracking down a hallway.
• Chimneys. If you never light the fire, a chimney balloon or a sheep of insulation up the flue stops warm air vanishing up a chimney breast.
• Windows. Self-adhesive foam or brush seals for timber frames, and a simple silicone sealant along the internal edges of older frames, tighten things up without touching the glazing.
• Floors and skirting. Bead of sealant along the top of the skirting, and a rug over bare floorboards, makes a cold room feel considerably kinder underfoot.

None of this replaces proper insulation, but it is the cheapest comfort you will ever buy — and it makes every other saving below work harder.

Give your heating a schedule worth having

Many households heat the house as though someone were in every room all day. A little thought about who is actually at home, and when, usually saves more than any single purchase.

• Set the thermostat lower and leave it there. Aim for 18–20°C in living areas and 16–18°C in bedrooms. Trimming a single degree off your usual setting can cut heating use by roughly a tenth over a heating season. Turning it up does not warm the house faster; it only overshoots.
• Use the timers properly. Set the heating to come on about half an hour before you get up and to go off half an hour before you leave, then repeat for the evening. If your system has separate zones, keep bedrooms cooler than downstairs.
• Don't fight the weather. On mild, sunny days, drop the flow temperature on a condensing boiler if it has that setting — running radiators cooler for longer is often more efficient than short, fierce bursts.
• Let radiators breathe. Move sofas and curtains clear of radiators, and bleed them once at the start of autumn. Cold spots at the top of a radiator mean trapped air and wasted heat.
• Close doors behind you. Heating the hallway and the stairs all evening while you sit in one room is one of the most common and most expensive habits in a family home.

Turn the hot water down a notch

If you have a hot water cylinder, check the thermostat on it — around 60°C is the sweet spot for safety and efficiency. Turn it higher and you are simply paying to lose heat through the lagging. Speaking of which, a decent cylinder jacket, at least 80mm thick, is one of the best-value jobs in the house, and pipe lagging on the first metre of hot pipe from the boiler costs pennies and pays back within a season.

For combi boilers, shorter showers genuinely matter. A four-minute shower uses far less hot water than a bath, and a low-flow shower head keeps the feel of a proper shower while using noticeably less.

Appliances: the quiet drain on your bills

Standby power is small but relentless, and it adds up across a household of four or five devices per person. The fix is not obsessive unplugging — it is a few well-placed habits.

• Switch off at the wall for televisions, games consoles, set-top boxes, printer, and the chargers left in sockets overnight. A single switched extension lead per room makes this a one-click job at bedtime.
• Wash cooler. A 30°C cycle cleans everyday family laundry perfectly well, and keeping one wash for towels and bedding at a higher temperature covers the hygiene side.
• Skip the tumble dryer when you can. It is one of the hungriest appliances in the home. A clothes airer in a well-ventilated room, or a washing line whenever the sky cooperates, saves real money over a year.
• Fill the dishwasher and washing machine. Half loads use nearly as much energy and water as full ones.
• Dust the fridge coils and keep the fridge away from the oven and direct sun. A fridge that runs efficiently runs cheaply.
• Kettle only what you need. Boiling a full kettle for one cup is a small waste repeated several times a day, every day.

Small habits that quietly add up

Cook with lids on pans, use the right size ring for the pan, and batch-cook when the oven is on anyway. Use a microwave for reheating rather than the main oven. Close curtains at dusk to hold warmth in, but keep them clear of radiators. Open internal doors on sunny winter afternoons to let free warmth circulate, then shut them again as the temperature drops.

Finally, do not chase every saving at once. Pick two or three changes this week — the draughts and the heating schedule are the best starting pair — and let them become habits before adding more. A warmer, cheaper home is usually built from small, sensible decisions rather than one big spend.