
Energy efficiency at home
Spotlight on home energy efficiency
We asked the experts at Energy Saving Trust for ways to help make your home more energy efficient.
Tips which could help improve the energy efficiency of your home
6 min read
What you’ll discover:
Keen to stay on top of your bills and reduce the amount of energy you use?
We asked the experts at Energy Saving Trust for their guidance on how to take better control of your heating. With a few small steps, you could improve the way you heat your home.
The dials on the front of some boilers let you switch your heating and hot water on or off, choose your desired water temperature and set a schedule to suit your daily routine.
Here are three ways that could help make your boiler work more efficiently:
You could try turning down your boiler's thermostat to help improve your boiler's efficiency.
Don’t go below 65C if you’ve got a conventional boiler with a hot water cylinder, or you could risk harmful bacteria growing in the cylinder. For more information, see Energy Saving Trust’s guide on how to set your boiler thermostat or boiler temperature.
Insulating your water tank and pipes could mean less heat is lost, so you might not need to use as much energy to heat your water.
Energy Saving Trust did some research into typical costs and savings and found that a hot water cylinder jacket 1 could cost around £18.
According to Energy Saving Trust, adding a 80mm British Standard jacket to a hot water tank with 25mm deep foam insulation could save around £40 a year2.
When was the last time you bled your radiators? With your central heating on for an hour, test each radiator (be careful not to burn yourself) to see if any part of it feels cold to touch. If so, it’s likely it might need to be ‘bled’, which removes air bubbles that could be causing the cold spots.
You’ll need a radiator key, an old towel and a bowl or jug. Switch off the heating and let the radiators cool for a few hours, then lay the towel under the pipes and place the bowl or jug under the valve. Use the key to slowly open the valve by doing a quarter or half turn. You’ll hear a hissing sound as the trapped air escapes. When it stops, or water comes out, close the valve. Once complete, make sure to check your boiler pressure as it might need to be topped up. Then you can switch your heating back on.
Taking control of your heating means you decide when and at what temperature you heat your home. Take a look at the different heating options available and see which ones could work for your home.
A thermostat measures how warm or cool the room is, then switches your central heating on or off to keep your home at the temperature you’ve set.
This lets you create a heating schedule that suits you. For example, with the average house taking 30 minutes to heat up, you could set the heating to come on half an hour before you get up and 30 minutes before you’re back from a day out.
These are connected to your radiator, sense the room temperature, and – if it’s too warm – adjust the flow of hot water into the radiator accordingly. Keep in mind that a radiator cover might prevent the TRV from getting an accurate temperature reading, so Energy Saving Trust recommend avoiding these if possible.
TRVs can help stop you overheating individual rooms, so you only use the energy you need. You could also set them to suit each room. For example, if you’re working from home in your kitchen, you might want more heat in there and less heat in your other rooms. It’s a good idea to start off with the lowest setting that you’re comfortable with, as it could help you use less energy and save money.
These let you set your heating, change room temperatures or turn off hot water with your phone or tablet.
There are more advanced features too. These include being able to track your heating from your smartphone and switch on the heating when you’re on your way home from work, detecting open windows and turning the thermostat down or heating off, or getting hot water ready for the time you’re most likely to take a shower.
It might be a good idea to consider new heating controls if you don’t already have a programmer, a room thermostat or TRVs. Energy Saving Trust have looked into this and, based on a typical semi-detached home with no controls, installing these together could cost you around £860, but you could save around £110 a year on your energy bills3.
Smart heating controls will typically cost more on top of this as you’ll usually need to pay for the unit, installation and there may also be an ongoing subscription fee.
Whether smart heating controls could save you money will depend on your lifestyle and how you currently control your heating. According to Energy Saving Trust, studies suggest that while they could save money, it may take some time to pay for their upfront cost as they can be quite expensive4.
If you think any of these upgrades could be right for you, make sure you discuss any potential benefits, savings or improvements with the provider. If you’ve got a residential mortgage with us, and you’re interested in smart heating controls, you could get 50% off the cost of a Hive Thermostat Mini, Hub and installation.
No. If you don't need the home heated because you're out or asleep, it's cheaper to switch the heating off.
If you’re planning to heat at least one room for more than a few hours, it's usually more cost-effective to use your gas central heating. Be sure to use your thermostatic radiator valves – set them higher in the room you're in and lower in those rooms you don't need to heat.
Setting the radiators to low in unused rooms could reduce your energy usage to help you save money. Heating fewer radiators should allow the boiler to switch off sooner, which could save you money on your energy bills. Close the doors between heated and unheated rooms to slow the warm air moving to the colder parts of the home. If some rooms are too cold or not well ventilated, you could risk condensation and mould problems.
If you don’t have frost protection and it’s very cold, freezing and thawing water could burst your pipes. In that case, it’s a good idea to leave your heating on low.
No. Their colour has little effect, so you won't notice a difference in effectiveness between colours.
If you have radiators on uninsulated external walls, you could put reflector panels behind them to help bounce heat back into your home5.
Everyone’s different – some people say they don’t feel the cold, while others might need a much warmer home. Energy Saving Trust says most of us should be comfortable in a home with the thermostat set to 18-21C (64-69F). It’s not just about your health – your home also needs to be taken care of. If it’s too cold, you could risk condensation and mould.
All information and estimates provided by Energy Saving Trust are correct as of January 2025. Changes in the price of gas and electricity since the date of their estimates might affect the estimated savings. Cost and savings estimates vary depending on factors like where you live, the type of home you have, how it’s heated and the amount of work needed. This article isn’t advice and is for general guidance only - always do your own research before taking any action. We’re not responsible for the content of the websites mentioned in this article.
Spotlight on home energy efficiency
We asked the experts at Energy Saving Trust for ways to help make your home more energy efficient.
How you could reduce what you use at home
We asked the experts at Energy Saving Trust for simple ways to help you save energy at home.