Saving energy doesn't always mean scaffolding or a new boiler. A lot of it comes down to what happens in your kitchen, bathroom and utility room every single day. The kettle filled to the brim for one cup of tea. The tumble dryer going on a sunny afternoon. The telly sat on standby all night.
Those little habits add up to real money. So here are the energy saving tips that genuinely make a difference in UK homes, with the Energy Saving Trust's latest figures next to each one. Most cost nothing. A few cost a few pounds. And at the end we'll be honest about when tips stop being enough.
Short Answer: The biggest everyday wins are drying clothes without the tumble dryer, shorter showers, switching things off standby, cooler washes and a thicker jacket on your hot water cylinder. Do all ten of the Energy Saving Trust's quick tips and you could save up to £313 a year. Still cold, or still paying too much, after that? Then the problem is probably the building, not your habits.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Following all ten of the Energy Saving Trust's quick tips could save a household in Great Britain up to £313 a year.
- Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers make up around 14% of a typical energy bill. Fridges and freezers aren't far behind at about 13%.
- Switching appliances off standby saves around £45 a year.
- Drying clothes on a line or rack instead of in a tumble dryer could save around £50 a year.
- By our count, the tips that cost nothing at all are worth around £203 a year between them.
What Are the Quickest Ways to Save Energy at Home?
The free ones. Drying clothes without the tumble dryer, keeping showers to four minutes, turning things off standby and washing at 30°C are the quickest wins going. After that come a handful of cheap fixes, like a proper cylinder jacket and some draught proofing. Here's how they stack up.
| Tip | Typical saving a year (GB) | Cost to do it |
|---|---|---|
| Line or rack dry instead of tumble drying | £50 | Free |
| Keep showers to four minutes | £45 | Free |
| Switch appliances off standby | £45 | Free (standby saver plug optional) |
| Top up your hot water cylinder jacket to 80mm | £45 | Low |
| Swap halogen bulbs for LEDs | £45 | Low |
| Professional draught proofing of windows and doors | £55 | Low (DIY is cheaper) |
| Fit a chimney draught excluder | £45 | Low |
| 30°C washes and one fewer wash a week | £26 | Free |
| Fit an aerator on the kitchen tap | £20 | Low |
| Don't overfill the kettle | £10 | Free |
| One fewer dishwasher run a week | £10 | Free |
| Swap one bath a week for a four-minute shower | £10 | Free |
| Turn lights off when you leave a room | £7 | Free |
If you want to save energy at home without spending a penny, start with the free habits on that list. Together they come to around £203 a year using the Energy Saving Trust's numbers. Not bad for changing a few routines.
Where Does Your Electricity Actually Go?
It helps to know where the money's going before you start. Here's the Energy Saving Trust's breakdown for the main groups of appliances in a typical home.
| Appliance group | Share of a typical energy bill |
|---|---|
| Washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers | About 14% |
| Fridges and freezers | About 14% About 13% |
| TVs, laptops, games consoles and other electronics | About 6% |
| Lighting | About 5% |
| Ovens, hobs, microwaves and kettles | About 4% |
How Can You Save Energy in the Bathroom?
Mostly by using less hot water. Heating water is one of the biggest hidden costs in most homes, and the bathroom is where a lot of it goes.
Keep Showers to Four Minutes
The Energy Saving Trust reckons cutting your shower down to four minutes could save around £45 a year. Not sure how long four minutes feels? Pick a song and get out when it finishes. Nudging the temperature down a touch helps as well. And if someone in the house loves a long soak, swapping just one bath a week for a quick shower is worth about £10 a year.
Give the Hot Water Cylinder a Thicker Coat
Got a hot water tank in the airing cupboard? Have a look at its jacket. A thin, loose 25mm one isn't doing much. Topping it up with an 80mm British Standard jacket could save around £45 a year, and it's a quick job. Wrapping any exposed hot pipes nearby helps too. (On a combi boiler? Then you won't have a cylinder, so skip this one.)
Don't Forget the Extractor Fan
A word of caution, though. Steamy bathrooms are a breeding ground for mould, so keep the extractor fan running while you shower and for a while afterwards. Saving energy shouldn't mean living with damp.
How Can You Save Energy in the Kitchen?
By changing a few small habits that happen several times a day. None of them are hard, and together they make a real dent.
Be Smart With the Kettle
Only boil what you need. It sounds too small to matter, but not overfilling the kettle saves around £10 a year. A tap aerator, a little gadget that screws onto the end of your kitchen tap, cuts the amount of water coming out without making the washing up any harder. That's worth about £20 a year.
Use the Right Appliance for the Meal
Heating a whole oven for one jacket potato is a lot of energy for not much food. For a single meal, the Energy Saving Trust says a microwave, air fryer or slow cooker will usually use less energy than the oven or hob. A microwave only heats the food, not the empty space around it. On the hob, put lids on pans and match the pan to the ring. We'll be looking at whether an air fryer is cheaper than an oven in a separate article.
Look After the Fridge and Freezer
Fridges and freezers run day and night, which is why they make up around 13% of a typical energy bill. Defrost the freezer when ice builds up, and try not to stand with the door open deciding what to have. When it's time for a new one, it really pays to pick energy efficient appliances. A typical fridge-freezer lasts around 17 years, so a better energy rating keeps paying you back for a long time.
Fill the Dishwasher
Only run it when it's full, and use the eco setting if it has one. Cutting out one run a week saves about £10 a year. The energy rating matters here as well. The Energy Saving Trust found an A-rated 12-place dishwasher costs about £35 a year to run, against roughly £70 for a G-rated one.
How Can You Cut the Cost of Doing the Laundry?
Wash cooler, wash less often and keep the tumble dryer for emergencies. Washing and drying clothes is one of the thirstiest jobs in the house.
Wash at 30°C and Wait for a Full Drum
Most everyday loads come out perfectly clean at 30°C. Washing at 30°C and cutting out one load a week could save about £26 a year. Try the eco cycle too. It takes longer, but it uses less energy overall.
Skip the Tumble Dryer When You Can
This is the big one. Drying clothes on a line or an indoor rack instead of in a tumble dryer could save around £50 a year. If you're drying washing indoors, open a window a crack or use a room with a fan, so the moisture has somewhere to go.
How Can You Save on Electronics and Lighting?
Switch things off properly, and choose energy efficient appliances when it's time to replace them. TVs, consoles and lights don't use much on their own, but they're on for hours, and that's what adds up.
Switch Off Standby
You can save around £45 a year just by turning things off at the wall instead of leaving them on standby. Most TVs, consoles and chargers are fine with that. A few things need to stay on, like the fridge, the freezer and any TV recorder that needs power to record your programmes. A standby saver plug can switch a whole cluster of devices off in one go.
Think About Screen Size
Bigger isn't always better. According to the Energy Saving Trust, a 60-inch F-rated TV costs around £40 a year to run, while a 40-inch one costs about £20. Worth remembering next time you're eyeing up the giant one in the shop.
Switch to LED Bulbs
Still got halogen spotlights? Swap them for LED bulbs. Replacing every halogen bulb in the house could save around £45 a year, and LEDs last far longer. Turning lights off when you leave a room adds another £7 or so. Small on its own, but it's free.
Which Small Heating Habits Make a Difference?
The ones that help your radiators do their job properly. Heating is the biggest part of most energy bills, so even small tweaks are worth having.
- Bleed your radiators if they're cold at the top. Trapped air stops them heating properly.
- Shut the curtains at dusk to keep the heat in, and open them in the morning so any sunshine can do some of the work.
- Don't park the sofa in front of a radiator. It soaks up the heat that's meant for the room.
- Tuck long curtains behind radiators rather than letting them hang over the top, so the heat goes into the room and not up the window.
- Get the boiler serviced once a year to keep it running safely and efficiently.
Thermostat settings and radiator valves matter a lot too. We've covered how to set your thermostat and heating controls in a separate guide, so we won't repeat it all here. The short version? Most people are comfortable somewhere between 18°C and 21°C.
How Do You Stop Draughts Without Spending Much?
Seal the gaps you can feel. Doors, windows, letterboxes, keyholes, the loft hatch and unused chimneys are the usual suspects.
Professional draught proofing for windows and doors could save around £55 a year, and a chimney draught excluder about £45. DIY strips and brushes cost even less. (Just remember to take the chimney excluder out before you light a fire.)
There are some things you shouldn't block, though. Leave air bricks, trickle vents and extractor fans alone. Your home still needs fresh air, and sealing it up too tightly can lead to condensation and mould.
Do Energy Saving Gadgets Actually Work?
Some do, some don't. The useful ones help you see or control what you're using. The rest are mostly marketing.
Smart Meters
A smart meter won't cut your bill on its own. What it does is show you, in pounds and pence, what you're using right now. Put the kettle on and watch the number jump. That turns out to be surprisingly good at changing habits. It also means no more estimated bills, and it opens the door to tariffs with cheaper off-peak electricity. We'll be explaining how to read your smart meter display soon.
Smart Thermostats and Standby Savers
Smart thermostats let you control the heating from your phone and set it around your week. Standby saver plugs switch off a whole bank of devices at once. Both can help, as long as you actually use them.
Plug-In "Energy Saving" Boxes
Be wary of little plug-in boxes sold online that claim to slash your bill just by sitting in a socket. Consumer groups have warned that they don't deliver what they promise. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
How Much Can You Really Save With Simple Tips?
Up to £313 a year if you follow all ten of the Energy Saving Trust's quick tips. Realistically, most households already do some of them, so your own figure will probably be lower.
Our own tally of the free habits alone comes to around £203 a year, using the Energy Saving Trust's figures for Great Britain. The cheap fixes add more on top. So yes, simple tips are a genuinely good way to lower your energy bills, and quickly.
Here's the honest bit, though. Habits can only take you so far. If your house is losing heat through thin loft insulation or uninsulated walls, you're paying for that every single day, however careful you are with the kettle. Prices haven't helped either. (We explain why energy bills keep rising in another article.)
When Are Simple Tips Not Enough?
When the house is still cold, or the bills are still high, after you've sorted the everyday stuff. That usually points to the building rather than the people living in it. Watch out for these signs:
- Rooms that go cold within an hour of the heating switching off.
- Thin or patchy insulation when you poke your head into the loft.
- A boiler that's well over ten years old or keeps needing repairs.
- Condensation and mould that keep coming back however often you wipe them.
- Electricity bills that stay high even though everyone's careful.
That's when bigger upgrades start to pay for themselves. Loft insulation is usually the cheapest place to start. A heating system upgrade can make a big difference if your boiler or controls are past their best. And solar panels let you make some of your own electricity, which helps every time prices go up. Whoever you go with, have a read of our guide on choosing an energy efficiency company before you sign anything.
What Should You Do First? A Step-by-Step Plan
Start with what's free, then work up. Here's a simple order that suits most homes.
- Today: change the free habits. Shorter showers, only boiling what you need, switching off standby, lights off as you leave.
- This week: sort out the laundry. 30°C washes, full loads, and the line or a rack instead of the dryer.
- This weekend: do the cheap DIY jobs. Cylinder jacket, tap aerator, draught strips and LED bulbs.
- Before winter: check the heating. Bleed the radiators, book a boiler service and look at your thermostat settings.
- Keep an eye on the numbers. Use your smart meter, or take monthly readings, to see what's changing.
- Still cold or still paying too much? Get a survey. At that point it's the building that needs looking at, not your habits.
Getting Expert Help in the West Midlands and Wales
Simple energy saving tips are the best place to start if you want to lower your energy bills. They cost little or nothing, and you'll see the difference on your next bill. What they can't do is fix a house that's leaking heat. If you've done the easy stuff and you're still reaching for a jumper, it's worth having someone take a proper look.
Greentek Energy Ltd is one accredited team for building work and energy upgrades, covering insulation, heating, heat pumps, solar PV, battery storage and renovation. We work with homeowners across the West Midlands and Wales, including Coventry, Birmingham, Solihull, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Cardiff and Swansea. Ring us on 0333 533 4567 or book a free consultation, and we'll tell you honestly what's worth doing next.
