Here are a few tips and ideas to improve the overall energy efficiency of your home and help you to save money on your energy bills.

How to save energy in and around your home is something I have written about before, but with the energy crisis still looming, despite some minimal government intervention, I thought it was worth looking at a few new ways I’ve come across to improve the energy efficiency of your home.

Clean and Bleed Your Radiators

Radiators can suffer from both a build-up of dust on the outside and a build-up of rust and gunk on the inside.

Cleaning them often and bleeding once or twice a year means they will be giving out as much heat as they possibly can while in use making them much more energy efficient.

Check Your Boiler Is Using The Most Efficient Settings

Not every boiler is set to the most energy-efficient settings. If you have a combi boiler, the temperature setting for water can be decreased from 60 down to 50.

You can find out more in this article.

Don’t Turn Your Heating Off

With energy bills as high as they are, it can be tempting to turn off your heating altogether to save money.

However, this can cause huge issues, especially in very cold weather when it can lead to burst pipes and thousands of pounds worth of damage.

Insulate Your Home

Insulation is an important part of keeping your home nice and warm in winter. While insulating walls is best left to the professions, one area you can easily tackle yourself is insulating the loft.

Loft insulation rolls cost around £30 each and will help to stop heat escaping through the top of your home.

How To Build An Energy Efficient Home

5 Quick Ways To Reduce Energy Costs

3 Energy-Saving Tips to Lower Utility Bills

Apply For A New Boiler Grant

If your boiler is more than eight years old, you may be entitled to a grant from the government to help with the cost of replacing it with a new, more energy-efficient one.

Find out more on the government website.

Invest In Energy Efficient People Warmers

What are people warmers you might ask?

Well, these are things that heat the person rather than needing to heat the whole home.

They can be more cost-effective than running the heating all day for those that work from home or are at home a lot during the day.

• Hot Water Bottles
• Electric Heated Throws
• Electric Blankets
• Electric Foot Warmer
• Hand Warmers

While there is a small initial cost with these items, they should work for years to come.

Make Your Kitchen Appliances More Energy Efficient

Again, this one does involve some upfront cost but there are ways to minimize that amount.

Electric ovens are one of the least cost-effective things in our homes and they are especially costly while getting up to the correct cooking temperature.

Replacing oven cooking with an air-fryer could save you money. While air fryers use a similar amount of energy to an electric oven, because they are smaller and cook food more quickly, they are used for much less time, making them a money saver.

Another great option is a slow cooker. These are very energy efficient, even when used for eight hours at a time. Opt for stews and other dishes where all the ingredients are cooked together to avoid needing to use the cooker at all.

Slow cookers are also perfect for cheaper cuts of meat that benefit from a long cooking time. Batch cooking using your slow cooker could also save money. Simply freeze and then reheat the food another day.

Tackle Those Draughts

Draughts can be found all over your home. From windows and doors to unused chimneys and loft hatches.

DIY draught excludes are easy to make and other jobs such as filling up or sealing cracks and crevices are great ways to make your home more energy efficient without needing to splash a tonne of cash.

Buy A Timer For The Shower

Showers can cost a lot to run, especially if everyone in your household likes to take their time. Pick up a cheap timer and make sure everyone knows they only get a short amount of time each.

It’s also worth checking no one is running the shower for ages to ‘warm up’ before getting in. There is someone in my household (yup, looking at you Pete!) that does this but it’s a habit I’m slowly getting them to break!

Do have any tips to add to this list? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!