Simple Ways to Reduce Energy Use at Home

Start With the Fabric of Your Home

Before you spend a penny on gadgets or smart controls, it pays to think about the building itself. Heat loss is rarely about one dramatic gap – it is usually a patchwork of small escapes adding up to a real dent in your bills. The good news is that most of the work is straightforward, affordable and makes rooms feel noticeably warmer even when the thermostat stays where it is.

Loft insulation is the classic starting point, and for good reason. Heat rises, and an uninsulated loft can let a quarter of your warmth slip away. Modern guidance suggests a depth of around 270mm of mineral wool, which is roughly double what many older homes have. If yours looks thin, topping it up is a job you can manage yourself with rolls from a builders' merchant, a dust mask and a bit of patience. Keep the insulation clear of eaves vents so the roof can still breathe.

Walls matter just as much. Roughly a third of heat loss in a typical house goes through the walls, so if your home has unfilled cavity walls, having them insulated is one of the best-value improvements available. Solid-walled period properties need a different approach – internal or external insulation – which is a bigger project but transformative in a cold Victorian terrace.

Draught-Proofing: Small Jobs, Real Comfort

Draughts are the reason a room can feel chilly at 20°C. They are also the cheapest problem to solve, and most of the fixes take an afternoon.

• Windows and doors: fit brush or foam strips into the frames, and use silicone sealant for fixed gaps where the frame meets the wall. Pay attention to the gap at the bottom of a door – a simple draught excluder or a brush strip makes a surprising difference.
• Letterboxes and keyholes: add a flap with a brush seal, and a cover over the keyhole. These are tiny openings that funnel cold air straight into the hallway.
• Chimneys: an unused open fireplace is an enormous hole in your thermal envelope. A chimney balloon or a proper cap stops the pull of cold air, but remember to remove it before you light a fire.
• Floorboards and skirting: run a bead of flexible sealant along the gap between skirting and floor, particularly on the ground floor and along external walls.

One caution: never block deliberate ventilation around boilers, gas fires or wood burners, and don't seal up bathroom and kitchen extractor routes. You want to stop draughts, not trap moisture.

Make Your Windows Work Harder

If replacement glazing is out of reach, secondary glazing is a practical middle ground. A slim acrylic or glass panel fitted inside the existing frame creates an insulating air gap, cuts noise beautifully and can be removed in summer. It is especially well suited to sash windows in period homes where you want to keep the original joinery.

Curtains do more than dress a room. Choose a thermal lining and hang curtains so they overlap the wall slightly at each side, and let them fall below the sill rather than stopping short. Close them at dusk to trap warmth, and open them in the morning to let sunshine in. Just make sure long curtains do not drape over radiators – you will simply push heat up the wall and out through the glass.

Lighting: The Easiest Saving in the House

Lighting is where the maths is most satisfying. Replacing a 50W halogen spotlight with a 4–5W LED cuts that fitting's running cost by roughly 90%, and modern LEDs warm up instantly and render colour properly – the yellow, flickering bulbs of a decade ago are long gone.

• Replace bulbs room by room, starting with the ones that stay on longest: kitchens, hallways, living rooms and any outdoor security lights.
• Choose the right colour temperature. 2700K feels warm and cosy for living rooms and bedrooms; 4000K is crisp and useful in kitchens, utility rooms and studies.
• Add a few lamps on separate switches or a dimmer so you can light one corner in the evening instead of flooding the whole room.
• Dust your lampshades and fittings – grimy covers can swallow a surprising amount of light, tempting you to add more bulbs.

Run Your Heating Smarter

Heating and hot water account for the bulk of most household energy bills, so small changes here have the biggest impact. If you have a condensing boiler, lowering the flow temperature to around 60°C lets it run in condensing mode for longer, extracting more heat from the same gas. It may take slightly longer to warm up, but the rooms still reach temperature.

Set the cylinder thermostat – if you have a hot water tank – to 60°C to keep stored water safe, and leave the boiler to do the rest. Fit thermostatic radiator valves and use them properly: bedrooms and spare rooms can sit lower, while bathrooms and living rooms stay warmer. Bleed radiators each autumn so they heat evenly, and consider a reflective foil panel behind radiators on uninsulated external walls.

Finally, a simple routine beats any gadget. Heat the rooms you actually use, close doors behind you, and drop the thermostat by a degree – most people genuinely cannot feel the difference, but the meter certainly can.