20 Ways to Save Energy and MONEY around your Home

With the cost of fuel higher than ever, it's important to make sure your home is as efficient as possible which will both save you money and make your environment more comfortable.

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[derbyshirebirdwatcher]

Another basic tip: close all the curtains and blinds as soon as the sun sets each day. This reduces the circulation where your expensive warm air hits colder glass, cools, drops to the floor and drags more warm air onto the window. Try sitting in a window-bottom on a cold day to experience this circulation first-hand.

[Proer]

In the Winter months, in addition to shutting off the oven 10 minutes early I also leave the door open after removing the food so that the residual heat warms the house.

[aaronanthonymoat]

My top tips,
If you have a hot water cylinder, only heat when your going to use it. Saved 250 a year

If you have a uninsulated hot water cylinder, buy a jacket for it or upgrade to an insulated one.

Buy an air fryer- not wasting extra electric heating a large oven to cook smaller items.

Schedule heating only in morning and evening and boost heating if needed.

If you can heat your water with electric or gas/oil, heat with Gas/oil as cheaper.

Insulate coper pipes in your boiler room

Change to LED lights as pays for themselves in about 4-6 months.

Use curtains

Clean radiators of dust

[KentBrono]

Saving typically results in you earning a lower return but with virtually no risk. In contrast, investing allows you the opportunity to earn a higher return, but you take on the risk of loss in order to do so.

[davyarthurs]

If you refill the kettle just after boiling you can preheat the water with the residual heat ready for your next cup. I just leave the oven door open once I’ve finished with it to heat the room. Also the oven cooling fan doesn’t need to run for some long either 😝

Some good tips. Forward planning and forethought do wonders for one’s wallet 😃

[Rog]

Top Tip with Combi Boilers, make sure you check where the pressure is at or check the manufacturers recommended pressure (it’s usually on a sticker of the boiler). As when you bleed the radiators you are effectively depressurising your central heating system.

The pressure can be brought back up by adjusting the valves at the bottom of the boiler to let in more water and bring the pressure back up, and if you take it too far you can bleed a little to drop it back down.

1.5bar (about 22psi) is usually where it should be, but most can be between 1 (14.50psi) and 2 bar (29psi) in my experience.

If your not sure check with someone who is or even pay a Plumber.

[Jetpac]

“..so if you know someone who has a thermal imaging camera, ask to borrow it for a couple of days….”
Stuart, may I please borrow your thermal imager for a couple of days?

Great informative video as always - with such a high level of production, moderately sprinkled with humour that we all appreciate. Thank you!

[principessailaria]

Can't even express by words how useful this vide actually is

[osxx]

Good tips, regrettably in our household we are already implemented these cost savings measures prior any energy and cost of living crisis. Our home is between 16-18C with 1-2 radiators turned on only for couple hours a day, run cold washes. In the shower, we turn off the running water to lather soap before a quick rinse off. Turning off appliances and the hob/oven are the best savings (and also the iron as you finish off the last clothing items). It is becoming increasingly impossible to save further for our household, I don't know how others are managing - never rely on the Government who got us in this place to begin with.

[daviddaywalker]

Skipping and jogging on the spot helps keep you warm

[mAcroFaze]

Thanks for this! :D One thing we do since our kitchen opens to our lounge (or vice versa) is that when we're done with the oven, upon turning it off, we keep the door half-open, just to let all that heat that would otherwise sit inside, just seep out into the rest of the kitchen and lounge, also not half bad if the food you've cooked smells awesome!

[jamie-ckjs]

Some great tips here. That said, we used to have quite high moisture content in the house which can be very bad for health and the one thing that immediately cured it was to stop drying washing indoors and stick it in the dryer. Yes it uses more energy, but the house is now much dryer.

[Palfy]

For old houses like mine that have natural movement (not subsidence), cut existing cracked sealant out with a flat head screw driver, re-seal with a low modulus sealant that allows for say 25% movement. Replace internal hollowcore doors with solidcore doors (engineered wood) from Wickes etc, and use v-seal weather strips around the door. A Chimney Sheep from Amazon will keep warm air in the room but still allow 5% ventilation to stop damp forming.

[Mrs.S-uk]

Great tips. I turned our central heating down from 21/22 to 18/19, it's made a huge difference in cost.

[tepidtuna]

Great tips. Another use of the camera would be to search for thermal bridges, mostly in older buildings. This is where a structural element is bare inside and outside and conducts heat from higher temps to lower, or better put, the heat leaks outs.

[lolilollolilol]

Excellent tips. I already do all of them around the kitchen, as well as the laundry.
A few other tips:
- in general, boil only the required amount of water, as boiling water is *very* energy hungry,
- always cover your pans with a lid, it helps increasing temperature and thus cook faster for free, also learn to use a pressure cooker (with only the minimum amount of water) especially to cook veggies,
- induction stoves are more efficient and practical than other types of stoves. However they are usually overpowered. Not much need to use more than 2kW, so if a stove is above that, don't use it at full power (too much power can crack cast iron vessels),
- invest in LED light bulbs. Not only they last much longer, but they are also vastly more efficient than the rest.
- my kitchen is usually cooler than the other rooms. Because there is not much reason to heat it anyway, the fridge has to work less hard if the kitchen is 3-5°C cooler, and lower temps are better for food conservation,
- close doors to trap heat in living rooms (very effective one in my experience),
- take showers rather than use the bath tub, you economise on water and therefore on hot water.

[ralphtaylor]

Whilst setting radiators in unused rooms to frost setting will save money it could lead to damp for some properties (old houses more likely than your new build). Could be better to set to low temperature - say position 1 rather than frost setting.
Another point - worth cleaning the fins inside the radiator (between the two panels) to improve airflow

[yellowbird]

I am learning that keeping the heat on a low setting is probably not the best use of my central h/a, at least for me. Having it cutting on all the time just because it has reached the temp setting doesn't mean it needs to be on if I am not chilly. So one might say, "So, set it lower." The same rule applies. Our body "feel" is different every day. Some days I can't get cool, and others I can get warm. What we eat, what we are wearing, where we are sitting, how much we move, whether we left a door open by accident or are in and out of the house more - all mean that our personal comfort will change from hour to hour. So I am experimenting with intermittent heat.

I use a dehumidifier and it sends heat out the top as it removes moisture from the air. Oddly, it will heat up my space where I am in the LR to about 12 degrees warmer than the outside temp. That helps, but also if the temp drops and it feels chilly, I will cut the heat on for maybe five/ten minutes and then shut it back off if the room is comfortable. An hour, two hours later, I will do it again if I need to until I go to bed. Because I have pets, I want to keep them comfortable, so will set it on lowest heat around 68 degrees, and because of the dehumidifier, it won't be clicking on much. The constant automatic on and off of the a/c (heat pump) constantly just doesn't seem necessary, and I am not sure, but it seems an a/c guy told me one time that every time it clicks on it pulls more power in the initial surge. So it stands to reason that the less "surging" it does, the lower my bill will be. My bill has dropped from $156 to $125 to $106 these past three months.

I am also doing other things like turning off the cooking burner after the food heats after it is cooking temp for a couple of minutes and putting a lid on it for the next half hour and it will continue to cook, but slower. There are a million ways to outfox the electric company, and YouTube is full of suggestions. LED bulbs in the home (soft white), passive cookers, not using the oven (stovetop baking), slow cookers, cold laundry wash/clothesline, wash/shower in off-peak hours only, etc. Some people shut off their hot water tanks for a few days or at least lower the temp. Thanks for letting me share.

[Elken]

Dont forget that the fridge require less power as you add frozen items to it :)

[amandar]

22 degrees? 😮 That’s shorts and t-shirt temperature. I wondered why the national average energy bills were so high.