7 Top Tips For Saving Energy At Home

With the current cost of living crisis, reducing energy usage at home is more important than ever. Whether you’re a home owner, renter, a student or you’re living with your parents, there are numerous ways you can adapt your home and lifestyle to become more energy efficient. With tangible benefits for both your purse strings and the environment, our energy saving tips are here to offer some advice.

From energy saving lightbulbs to loft insulation, adapt your home for smarter living with these simple electricity and gas energy saving tips.

Insulate, insulate, insulate

Insulation is perhaps the most important change you can make for saving energy at home and cutting your heating bills. Typically, around 25% of the heat produced by heating systems in our homes is lost through the roof, making loft insulation essential if you want to make your home more energy efficient.

From lightweight, non-combustible loft roll to panel boards and loft legs, we’ve got everything you need to make your home smarter when it comes to your energy consumption.

Top tip: Take a look at our loft insulation buying guide and installation tutorial to find the best solution for your home.

Bleed radiators regularly

Bleeding radiators regularly prevents air from becoming trapped inside. This causes cold spots and means that your boiler has to work harder (and use more energy) to maintain a constant temperature.

If you feel cold patches, hear gurgling noises or notice that your radiators are taking longer to heat up, this is often a sign that they need bleeding. All you need is a radiator key and a bit of know how. The Enduraseal Radiator Bleed Key catches any excess water for a mess-free solution.

Maximise efficiency with reflective radiator foil

While on the subject of radiators, there’s another small change you can make to ensure that your heating runs as efficiently as possible. Installing radiator reflective foil behind your radiators is one of our simplest gas energy saving tips. For optimal results, use against external walls – this stops heat from being absorbed by walls, instead reflecting it back into your living space. Easy to apply, Radiator ReflectFoam can be cut to size and can reduce heat loss by up to 50%.

Keep draughts at bay

Loose seals and ill-fitting doors and windows account for a significant amount of energy loss in the home. If you want to know how to save money on your energy bill, perform a quick survey of your home and identify any draughts. Common culprits include letterboxes, chimneys and older door and window fittings.

Installing letter box draught excluders, brush strip draught excluders on external doors, secondary glazing film, and investing in a chimney draught excluder for when your fireplace isn’t in use will make a huge difference when it comes to preventing heat loss.

Top tips: For more ways to promote energy efficiency, explore our guide to insulating your home for less.

Switch to energy saving bulbs

If you’re looking for a simple and quick way to reduce your electricity bills, make sure you swap out your current lightbulbs for energy saving lightbulbs in your lamps and light fittings. As a general rule, LED lights last longer and use 90% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs. If you prefer the look of warmer lighting, energy saver CFL bulbs use 80% less electricity than traditional options and give off a lovely, inviting glow.

With a range of options that fit every attachment and wattage, making the swap to energy saving lightbulbs is a simple way to save both energy and money for any household.

Top tip: Our lightbulb buying guide will help you to find the best bulb for your light fitting.

Give your tumble dryer a break

Though convenient, domestic tumble dryers are hungry creatures when it comes to energy consumption. Whenever possible, leave clothes to air dry instead. Fair weather provides the perfect opportunity to dry your laundry outdoors on a washing line or rotary airer. With a variety of expandable and easy-to-store options, an indoor airer is also a great alternative to using the tumble dryer – just be sure to leave a window open if you live in a poorly ventilated home.

Top tip: Washing your laundry on a power saving, cooler setting and in larger, less frequent loads can also save on electric and reduce your energy bill.

Save resources with a water butt

There are things you can do to save on resources and bills in the garden too. When summer arrives, regular watering can be costly and a drain on natural resources. Instead, invest in a water butt to collect rainwater. The collected rain can be used to water plants and keep your garden looking lush and green all year round.

With our top energy saving tips, you now know how to save energy and make your home smarter, more efficient and cheaper to run. Explore our Ideas & Advice page for more inspiration and share your own gas energy saving tips and advice on how to reduce electricity usage with us @Homebase_UK.