Make your home more energy efficient in one weekend

Making your home more energy efficient doesn't need to cost the earth or involve time-consuming and disruptive renovations. 

In fact, there are several simple steps you can take to make your energy usage more efficient and less costly in just a short weekend project. 

There’s no getting around the fact that upgrades like fully insulating a home or installing solar panels and heat pumps come at a significant cost. There are limits to what you can achieve on a low budget and with limited time. However, you can still take impactful measures to save money and move towards greener energy usage without spending a your savings on costly renovations. 

We’ve gathered together six simple actions you can take that will instantly make your home cheaper to run. 

For details of the long-term upgrades and possible savings available for your own home, take a look at our home energy planning tool

1. Start by monitoring your energy usage

You can’t save money on energy if you don’t know how much gas and electricity you use on a regular basis, and which are your most energy guzzling habits and appliances.

Spend a couple of days monitoring your usage so that you know where to focus your efforts. 

On a basic level, anyone can do this by looking at your electricity meter at any given time, making a note of the number of kWh used, and then checking back after using an appliance to see how many kWh have been used up in the interim time period. You'll need to only run that one appliance to get an accurate picture.

However, if you have a smart meter there are ways to do this more easily. Firstly, you can use your smart meter monitor (the small device that shows you your energy usage) to see how much energy is being used at any given time. You will notice a brief spike when you put the kettle on, for example.

You may also be able to look at your half hourly data in your online energy account, or on an app. Several energy companies now offer apps that provide detailed information about usage and costs using smart meter data. 

You'll be able to see how much your bills spike when you're running a load of laundry or using lots of cooking appliances – this can help you make more informed choices about how you can make savings.

Find out more about ways to save on your energy bills. 

2. Turn down your hot water temperature

You may not be using your boiler efficiently, making heating your home more expensive. 

If your hot water comes out scolding hot and you have a combi boiler that heats hot water on demand, you can make savings by turning down your boiler's hot water temperature. The perfect temperature will depend on your setup, so try a few options until you get the perfect temperature. 

Note that this is only applicable to those with combi boilers. If you have a hot water cylinder that stores water, your settings need to be set by a boiler engineer. They need to be kept hot enough to avoid the build-up of bacteria in your storage tank.

While your central heating is likely to be off for the summer, you can also get ahead by lowering your boilers flow temperature. Many of us have this set too high, which means the water flowing into your radiators is needlessly hot. Try 60C, which is sufficient for many homes.  Make sure you read our full guidance on lowering your boiler's flow temperature first to ensure you are doing it safely – and note that this is only applicable to combi boilers.

Find out more about ways to adjust your boiler settings to save money.

3. Draught proof your home

Get ready for the autumn and winter months by doing some draught proofing around the house. 

The more heat that escapes from your home or specific rooms you’re heating, the harder your boiler needs to work. Prevent this happening and you'll use less energy over time and lower your bills. Your home will feel cosier, too. 

You can pay a trader to draught proof your home, but there are also several DIY methods that are simple enough to do in a few hours. 

Start with obvious areas such as doors, windows and fireplaces, and then look at less obvious sources of draughts, including floorboards and loft hatches. 

• Windows: Use draught-proofing strips around the frame. 
• Doors: Use draught-proofing strips around the edges and brush or hinged-flap draught excluders at the bottom.
• Open chimneys: If you don't use your fireplace, block the chimney with an inflatable pillow (these are available online or at DIY shops). 
• Floorboards and skirting: Floorboards need to move, so make sure you use a flexible silicone-based filler when filling gaps.
• Loft hatches: Use draught-proofing foam strips around your loft hatch to keep heat in.

While banishing draughts from your home will improve your energy efficiency and help lower your bills, remember that you do still need ventilation in your home. Don't seal up intended vents, as this can quickly lead to damp problems.

Get more tips in our guide to how to draught proof your home.

4. Change the way you use your appliances

You don’t need to rush out and buy the latest energy-efficient tumble dryer or fridge, to save on your bills. 

Here are a few small but effective ways you can change your habits to save money and make your home more energy efficient.

• Wash clothes at a lower temperature. Doing your laundry at 30ºC (rather than 40ºC) cuts the cost by 38%. 20ºC is considered a true cold wash and is usually enough for everyday cleaning. See our washing machine temperature guide to find out more.
• Run your dishwasher only when it's full and stacked, so every item gets well cleaned. 
• Use eco settings on any of your appliances that have them. See how much you can save with 'eco mode' compared to 'quick wash' in our study on the costs of dishwasher programs.
• Air dry laundry outside when the weather permits instead of using a tumble dryer.

See which appliances are the biggest energy guzzlers in our guide to how much your household appliances cost to run.

When the time does come to buy new appliances, investing in energy-efficient models can help cut costs in the long run. 

Our lifetime running costs analysis often finds that spending a little more upfront on an energy efficient model can soon pay off if that appliance is cheaper to run than other models.  

Which? Eco Buy products must have a lower impact on the environment than alternative models. This can be proved in a number of ways, from being very energy efficient and therefore saving electricity with every usage, to being easily repairable. We also consider whether the product is from a brand with a proven reliability record, meaning it's more likely to last a long time. 

Find out more about choosing a Which? Eco Buy.

5. Spend the weekend doing some DIY insulation

A well-insulated home is the very best defence against high heating costs, no matter what you use to heat your home. 

If professional insulation installation isn’t within your budget, these DIY projects can go some way towards limiting your energy usage: 

• If you have a hot water tank, wrap it in an insulation jacket. This will keep the water in the tank warm for longer and you’ll use less energy to reach the required temperature. 
• Fit foam insulation around any exposed pipes (also called lagging). This will prevent water from losing heat as it moves from the boiler to your taps and radiators. 
• Place foil behind radiators. This will reflect heat back into the room. You can use tin foil, which is cheap but fiddly, or you can buy dedicated radiator panels that are rigid and come with an adhesive. 
• If you don’t have double glazing, install insulating window film. 

If you have some time and don’t mind a bit of heavy lifting, DIY loft insulation is something you can achieve over a bank holiday weekend. A large portion of heat escapes the home through the roof, so insulating the loft is one of the most significant ways to lower your heating costs. 

Our guide to how to insulate a loft or roof explains everything you need to know.  

While DIY is a viable route for cold lofts and pipes, it's best to stick with the professionals if you're considering wall, floor or ceiling insulation.

Get a quote from someone in your area who's been vetted by Which? at Which? Trusted Traders.

For an overview of the long-term upgrades and possible savings available for your own home, put your details into our free home energy planning tool.

6. Don't forget to fix an energy deal

While fixing an energy tariff won't make your energy use more efficient, it is an immediate and low-effort way to lower your monthly energy bill.

The energy price cap is already very high and will increase again on 1 October. This means that any household paying out-of-contract, variable rates, will see their bills increase. The bulk of the price increases have been attached to gas rates, which means that you may only start to feel the difference to your bills when you come to turn your heating on.

While there aren't many fixed deals that offer vast savings, there are still some around that would save the typical household over £100 a year compared to the October-December variable rates. Plus, you'll be protecting yourself from future price rises. 

See our guide to how to get the best energy deal for our round up of the latest cheap energy tariffs and more on what to look out for when fixing an energy deal.