Reducing your energy consumption is a great place to start – you’ll save money while reducing your environmental impact – but we also need to reduce and even eliminate fossil fuel burning altogether.
Here’s our Big Green Ideas List of ways to reduce your energy use, and make sure the energy we use comes from renewable sources.
Keep the heat in
Get thicker curtains
Thick curtains help keep the heat inside where you need it. Any curtain is better than none, but you’ll see the most benefit from really thick curtains lined with interlining (batting).
If you’re lucky, you may be able to find interlined curtains on second-hand marketplaces like Preloved, but do check that the seller understands the difference between “interlined” (a layer of thick fabric, called batting, between the inner and outer decorative fabrics) and “lined” (just two layers of fabric, and less effective).
Bespoke interlined curtains are likely to be very expensive, but Dunelm stocks ready-made thermal/interlined curtains and thermal linings for your existing curtains which might be worth trying.
Insulate (lag) your pipes and hot water tank
Insulating your hot water tank (cylinder) and pipes is probably the cheapest and easiest way to improve the insulation in your home.
Read more about insulating your pipes and hot water tank.
Draughtproof your existing doors and windows
Badly fitted double glazing and older wooden doors let the heat leak out of your house and leave you with cold draughts. You probably know exactly which windows or doors need attention because you feel cold when you go near them!
Draught-proofing is one of the most cost-effective insulation methods, with a payback time of just a few years, and an instant improvement in living quality, so worth doing sooner rather than later.
Read more about draught-proofing.
Insulate your loft (attic)
Uninsulated properties lose 25% of their heat through the roof [3]. You can tell if your property is underinsulated (compared to your neighbours) by looking at the roof on a frosty or snowy day. The heat rising through the roof of a badly insulated house will melt the frost or snow faster than on neighbouring roofs.
Depending on where you live and your personal circumstances, there may be grants available to help you with the cost of roof insulation. See the Energy Saving Trust for more information.
The Energy Saving Trust also has advice on which types of insulation may be suitable for your loft.
Insulate your walls
Energy use in homes contributes a staggering 10.9% to global greenhouse emissions[6]. Properties can lose one-third of their heat through the walls[7], so that’s a huge opportunity to save money, save energy and stop contributing to climate change. Installing wall insulation is an effective, do-it-once-and-forget-about-it climate change action that keeps on working, and there may even be grants available to help with the cost.
Read more about insulating your walls.
Ask your landlord to improve the energy efficiency of your home
Depending on how reasonable your landlord is, it could be worth asking them if they would invest in energy-efficient improvements. Your local council might offer grants to help with the costs.
Risks: be aware that your landlord might put the rent up once the property becomes more desirable, and there’s always the possibility that they might evict you for being “troublesome”. Hopefully, you know your landlord well enough to judge the risk. However, landlords are always the first group the government forces to upgrade their properties because it’s easier to force legislation on landlords than on homeowners. In a few years, you may find your gas cooker being swapped for an electric cooker, or your windows or roof insulation being upgraded, without any effort or risk on your part. Proceed at your own risk.
Cooking
Plan ahead
If you plan your meals, you already know what you’re eating tomorrow. Instead of wasting energy cooking from frozen, or defrosting in the microwave, simply defrost your ingredients or ready meals overnight in the fridge. For example:
- Defrosting overnight saves 55 kW per year compared to defrosting the same item for 10 minutes in a 900 watt microwave
- Assuming a meal takes 50 minutes to cook from frozen but only 30 minutes to cook from chilled, defrosting overnight would save 304 kW per year versus cooking from frozen in a 2.5 kW oven
Switch off your oven 5 to 10 minutes before the end of cooking time
Ovens are well insulated – just see how long they hold the heat after you’ve turned them off.
You can make use of that residual heat by turning off your oven 5 to 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time. It should easily hold the heat long enough to finish cooking your meal. The longer the cooking time, the less you’ll notice any effect.
Assuming your oven uses 3kw per hour, turning it off 10 minutes before the end of cooking time will save 182.5 kW per year.
This isn’t recommended for cakes, meringues and soufflés (where getting the mixture and temperature right are really important to the end result) but it should work fine for things like baked potatoes, or meals cooked in the oven.
Use the right pan
Cast-iron cookware, like Le Creuset (or cheaper alternatives) hold the heat really well, so you can save energy by cooking with a gentle heat. They’ll also last a lifetime making them a responsible, buy-it-once choice.
But whatever you cook with, use a lid to keep the heat in, and make sure you choose the right-sized ring for the pan so you don’t waste heat. And if you can see the flame up the sides of the pan, turn it down – that’s wasted heat too.
Use less energy
Wash at lower temperatures and shorter cycles
Most washes can be done cold (either 20 or 30 degrees C) with no difference in wash quality. You may want to do some washes, like underwear, at hotter temperatures for hygiene reasons. For clothes that are smelly rather than dirty, you could try airing them outdoors or just use a super-quick cold wash. You might need an extra spin to get the water out of heavy fabrics like denim.
Get your boiler serviced
The most environmentally friendly option is to replace your oil or gas boiler with a heat pump, powered by renewable energy. But if a heat pump is out of your budget, the next best thing is to keep your existing boiler running efficiently by servicing it regularly.
Install a programmable thermostat and thermostatic radiator valves
A programmable thermostat allows you to set the times that the heating will be on or off, so you don’t waste energy heating an empty house. Thermostatic radiator valves allow you to control the flow of water to individual radiators so you can control the heat on a room-by-room basis. You probably don’t need to heat the spare room you use for storing boxes and gym equipment!
If your home doesn’t have a programmable thermostat or thermostatic radiator valves, get them fitted or speak to your landlord.
Hang your clothes up to dry
Tumble dryers use a lot of electricity because you’ve got both heat and rotational movement going on, and wet clothes are heavy.
Reduce your tumble drier usage by hanging your clothes up to dry instead. If you take them out of the washing machine very promptly and hang them up neatly on hangers, your clothes should dry fairly crease-free and may not need ironing at all.
Use a clothes horse (in a room far away from cooking smells), an outdoor clothesline, or even convert a space into a laundry/drying room by installing hanging rails above a radiator.
We’ll admit some items definitely come out better if tumble-dried – particularly towels and children’s clothes, both of which can go crispy if air-dried. See how short a time you can get away with. Partial drying, say for 10 minutes, is enough to knock the creases out of children’s clothes and soften them; then you can hang them up to air dry.
For towels, we recommend air-drying them for about 6 hours, then tumble drying on low, two towels at a time, for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on your drier). Then hang them up again until they are completely dry. This massively reduces the overall energy use, and leaves towels adequately soft (not luxury hotel soft, but you get used to it).
Switch off lights when you leave the room
It only makes a small difference to your energy usage, but it reminds you (and others) to make simple, ongoing changes.
Switch things off instead of leaving them on standby
Use products that automatically turn off your electronic equipment when it’s not in use, e.g. sockets that turn off your appliances at certain times of day, or multi-outlet plugs that switch off everything when the “main thing” is switched off.
Replace high-energy appliances
How much energy do your appliances use? You can find out with a single-appliance energy meter like this one. Simply plug the energy meter into the socket, then plug the appliance into the energy meter. Use the appliance as normal for a reasonable period of time, then read the display to see how much electricity it’s used.
For wasteful appliances, you’ll need to weigh up the cost of continuing to use a wasteful appliance against the carbon cost of causing a replacement unit to be manufactured and shipped. You won’t be able to calculate this of course – it’s more of a gut feeling – but that 25-year-old fridge freezer in your garage, for example, has probably run its course.
For less wasteful appliances, wait until they stop working and can no longer be repaired, then replace them with the most energy-efficient model you can afford.
Turn your heating thermostat down a bit
The Energy Saving Trust recommends 18 to 21 degrees C in the UK. Adjust your clothing to the weather – you shouldn’t be barefoot in a t-shirt in the winter. Wear socks and a jumper and you can turn the thermostat down without noticing a difference.
Set your heating and water timers to minimise the amount of time the boiler is working
If your timer is set to “on”, your boiler is working hard to keep your heating and hot water up to temperature, just in case you need it.
- Gradually move the morning start time later, until the house feels too cold when you get out of bed, or there isn’t enough hot water. Then you’ve gone too far
- Set the timer to “off” while you’re at work, and have it come on again half an hour before you get home.
- At the end of the day, gradually move the switch-off time earlier. The heating can be cooling down long before you go to bed, and you don’t need to reheat a full tank of water after the last person has showered. You may be surprised how early you can switch it off
Replace your lighting with LED lights
Traditional incandescent/filament light bulbs waste a lot of energy. About 90% of the energy they use is emitted as heat, and only about 10% as light!
Halogen bulbs also emit a lot of heat. Compared to an LED (light-emitting diode) they use about 10 times as much power to generate the same amount of light.
LEDs are more expensive, but they don’t get as hot, which means they don’t waste as much energy. They also last much longer – about 25,000 hours, or nearly 17 times as long as a halogen light bulb.
If possible, don’t let the cost put you off – the savings will quickly cover the upfront cost. But choose a well-known brand, as they have more at stake if their reliability isn’t as good as promised, so they’re more likely to last.
Check the health of your oven
How old is the seal on your oven? An efficient seal will hold the heat in better, so the oven will use less energy to reach and maintain temperature. Check the seal on your oven and get it replaced if necessary.
You’ll also use less energy if you keep the door shut while cooking. Clean the glass window on the front so you can see how your food is doing without opening the door.
Reduce heater/aircon use
At the office or at home, many of us have become used to our environments being a steady 21 degrees C all year round (even if some of us hate it). But why not enjoy the seasonal variation in temperature? On cooler days, wear a jumper or layers, and set your heating thermostat lower so you don’t use as much energy heating your space. On hotter days, wear thinner clothes / short sleeves, and set your aircon thermostat higher so it doesn’t have to work so hard. You’ll save money and energy by reducing the work your heater/aircon is asked to do.
Do fewer loads of washing
We all fall into habits. Challenge yourself; are you separating more than necessary? Could you combine them and do fewer loads? Clothes and towels that have been washed many times are unlikely to still leak dye, and can probably be combined into fewer loads. (Handwash to check for dye leakage first if you’re not sure, and separate if you decide to wash something at a higher temperature than usual, because that might cause dye to come out.)
Close your curtains or blinds at dusk
Researchers at the University of Salford found that drawing the blinds at dusk can reduce heat loss by 13-14%, and drawing the curtains can reduce heat loss by 15-17%. Taking it a step further – if it’s a cold day and you’re not using the room, just leave them closed all day.
Wear socks and a jumper in your house
Just like your parents used to tell you – if you’re cold, put a jumper on. You can delay putting the heating on for a bit, and keep it a degree or two colder. Another good rule; never switch on your fan-heater unless you’ve already put on a jumper and socks.
If you’re home alone, heat your house efficiently
Work out if it’s more efficient for you to use a space heater (e.g. a fan heater) in one room, or to heat the whole house using your central heating. If you run the space heater all day, it will probably cost more (in money) to heat just one room. But if your electricity is from a renewable source, it will still cost the earth less, even if it costs your pocket more. If you only put the space heater on for a top-up every now and then, it will probably be cheaper to use that.
Put your hairdryer/fan heater/fan somewhere inaccessible
It’s tempting to turn these on when you don’t really need them. If you unplug them and put them in a cupboard or drawer you make it less likely you’ll use them unless you really need to. Also, make it a rule not to turn your heater on unless you’re already wearing a jumper and socks, and (if it’s dark) you’ve pulled the curtains.
Only boil what you need
The more water you put in your kettle, the more energy it takes to bring that water to the boil. Try just pouring one cupful of water in your kettle – you’ll be surprised just how little it is. (But if your kettle has a minimum level, don’t go lower than that; you could burn out your kettle or worse.)
Spread your washing over the week
Spread your washing cycle (and therefore drying) over the week, instead of just the weekend. The air won’t become saturated with water, and the washing will dry quicker.
Wear your clothes more times before washing them
Frequent washing adds significantly to the energy footprint of a piece of clothing, as well as releasing microfibres that pollute the oceans. Washing also causes clothing to fade or wear out sooner. Cut down on washes by airing your clothes outside to remove smells between wears.
Clothes that don’t touch your torso can be worn several times before they need to be washed. Depending on how sweaty you get, you can wear items like bras or tops, a couple of times before washing. Jeans can be worn 5 or more times before washing, unless perhaps you are the cook in your household, or your work involves getting dirty, or you have a greasy-haired dog. Underwear should, of course, be washed after every use.
Use the right ring for the pan
If you can see flames coming up the sides of the pan, or you can see the hot plate around the base of the pan, you’re wasting energy. Use a smaller ring.
Find out which washing machine cycle is the most energy-efficient
Test the claimed energy usage with a single-appliance energy meter like this one. We washed identical loads of school uniform (3 weeks in a row) and found that our “normal” 30 degree wash uses 0.367 kW, the 30 degree quick wash uses 0.28 kW and the cold eco cycle uses just 0.1kW! (However the eco cycle left the clothes much wetter, so they took longer to dry.)
Switch to renewable energy
Switch to a green energy supplier (when the market returns to normal)
Reduce your electricity usage where you can, but choose a green tariff to ensure that for every kWh you use, an equivalent amount is generated through green technology. It supports the growing market and sends a strong message to the people in charge of future energy generation and wholesale energy buying.
Sadly the market is much less competitive after so many suppliers were forced out of business due to high energy costs in the autumn of 2021, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In better times you can check for the best current UK green tariff here.
Replace your gas hob/oven with an electric model
In addition to the need to phase out fossil fuels, cooking with gas can cause dangerous particles to accumulate in your house which could harm your health[4].
If you are planning on installing an induction hob, bear in mind it may need a heavier-duty electricity supply than your regular 13amp sockets. So plan this into any other work you are doing to avoid later disruption and redecoration. Of course, when the markets are working again, you should also sign up to a renewable electricity tariff to make your cooking fully fossil-fuel-free.
Green technology
If you can afford it, consider installing solar panels, a heat pump or even a wind turbine. Prices should be coming down in the next few years as gas boilers are phased out and the technology improves. Always look around for grants and government incentives.
Check for grants that may be available to help with costs. At the time of writing, if you are in a couple with 2 children and earn less than £32,300 per year, and your house has a low energy efficiency rating, you could be eligible for a government-backed means-tested grant that covers the whole cost of insulating and installing a heat pump in your home. (Other limits apply if you are single or have more/fewer children.)
Make sure you fully understand what you’re signing up to if it isn’t a simple pay-and-you’re-done deal, so you don’t sign yourself and future owners of your house up to a bad deal.
Find out if you are eligible for any grants or subsidies for energy-saving measures
The Energy Saving Trust has links to all the schemes currently available in the UK. Not all the schemes operate throughout the whole UK – you’ll do best if you live in Scotland – but it’s worth checking out wherever you live. The schemes cover home energy, car charging, grants for small businesses and more.
There may also be grants available through your local council, e.g. to help landlords upgrade their properties. Check locally to see if your council offers any help.
As with all government schemes, you can expect the rules to change or the incentives to be withdrawn at some point, so keep an ear open if you’re relying on any of these to help fund your works and always check before committing yourself.
Building/renovating
Design with energy in mind
When making big changes or designing a home from scratch, specify features that reduce energy waste e.g. lobbies (so your heated rooms don’t open straight into the outside), drying rooms (so you can hang your clothes up to dry away from cooking smells, reducing tumble dryer use) and triple glazing (to reduce heat loss).
Design or repurpose rooms to get the best solar benefits
For example, in the Northern hemisphere, put your living room, dining room, kitchen and drying room on the side facing South, and your larder, bathrooms, storage, bedrooms, and garage facing North (reverse in the Southern hemisphere).
Aim for Passivhaus or EnerPHit standards
Passivhaus is an energy certification standard that ensures buildings use the minimum amount of energy while being comfortable to live in. Passivhaus buildings typically have very high levels of insulation, high-performance windows, are airtight, have a highly efficient mechanical ventilation system, and have no thermal bridges (a thermal bridge is where there is no change in material between the inside and outside, which allows heat to pass more easily).
For retrofit projects, where the existing building cannot be made to meet Passivhaus standards for architectural or conservation reasons, the slightly relaxed EnerPHit standard is available.
Replace your doors and windows
If you have draughty doors and windows, replace them with modern, tight-fitting, thermally-broken*, double- or triple-glazed versions.
Double and triple glazing is expensive and it could take decades to recoup the cost in terms of money saved. However, you’ll feel much warmer, use less energy, and cut out some external noise. Depending on your property, you’ll probably increase the resale value of your home too.
For older or listed properties, secondary glazing may be the best option. Secondary glazing is a second pane of glass that fits discreetly behind the original on the inside, decreasing heat loss while preserving the property’s traditional external appearance.
* (A thermal bridge is where there is no change in material between the inside and outside, which allows heat to pass more easily. Thermally-broken walls/doors/windows have at least one change in material, so heat cannot pass through so easily.)
If you are a landlord, upgrade your properties
There may be grants available to help – check with your local council or visit the Energy Saving Trust to find national schemes. In addition to being eco-friendly, improvements could make your property more lettable, increase the capital value, and help keep good tenants in place.
Fit electric charging points at home
Electric charging points allow you to easily recharge your electric car overnight, making charging hassle-free and potentially cheaper (depending on your tariff). As electric cars become more common, homes with a charging point already installed will become even more attractive to buyers.
While it’s undeniably easier for people with driveways to install chargers at home, kerbside options are coming, such as these solutions from Connected Kerb and Green Mole.
Influence
Lobby your political representative
Whether you prefer emailing, Twitter or meeting in person, lobby your political representative about:
- subsidising/supporting green technology development
- more opportunities for individuals and businesses to invest in green energy generation and insulation
- research into carbon capture technology
- making solar panels and renewable energy generation systems mandatory on all new buildings
- building sustainable transport routes as part of all new large developments
- supporting wind farm developments
Lobby your political representative to ban fracking and similar fossil fuel extraction methods
Fracking literally forces thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground, poisons watercourses[1a], and is known to cause earthquakes. [1b]
While the UK has, technically, banned fracking, scientists from Glasgow Caledonian University and Keele University say similar extraction methods are still being explored in the South of England[2] and bans may be overturned in an attempt to reduce reliance on imported gas.
If your country currently bans fracking, write in support of that ban. If it allows fracking or similar technology, lobby against it.
Write to your political representative about taxes on energy companies and the prosecution of executives
Energy companies like Shell knew about fossil fuels and climate change back in the 1960s, and covered it up with decades of denial. Now they’re making record profits while many people can’t afford to heat their homes.
Write to your political representative to demand new, excess profit taxes on energy companies, with the money raised to be invested in sustainable infrastructure like green mass transit and wind farms.
We also think it’s time to prosecute the energy company executives who covered up the climate change science for decades, making the problem immeasurably harder to solve and putting us all at risk. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. The USA actually seems to be leading the way on this, as “an unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aim to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way“[5]
See our Influence page for more ways to influence companies, politicians and people you know.
[1a] U.S. EPA. Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States (Final Report). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-16/236F, 2016. [Accessed 31 August 2022]
[1b] Earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk. n.d. Fracking and earthquake hazard. [online] Available at: <http://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/research/earthquake_hazard_shale_gas.html> [Accessed 31 August 2022].
[2] Baker, K. and Styles, P., 2019. UK government’s fracking ‘ban’ has a convenient loophole. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/uk-governments-fracking-ban-has-a-convenient-loophole-126475> [Accessed 22 November 2021].
[3] Energy Saving Trust. 2021. Roof and loft insulation. [online] Available at: <https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-insulation/roof-and-loft> [Accessed 22 November 2021].
[4] Lin, W., Brunekreef, B. and Gehring, U., 2013. Meta-analysis of the effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide and gas cooking on asthma and wheeze in children. [online] International Journal of Epidemiology. Available at: <https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/42/6/1724/737113> [Accessed 23 March 2022].
[5] Big Oil and gas kept a dirty secret for decades. now they may pay the price (2021) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crimes-oil-and-gas-environment (Accessed: February 6, 2023).
[6] Ritchie, H., Roser, M. and Rosado, P. (2020) Emissions by sector. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector (Accessed: March 22, 2023).
[7] Cavity Wall Insulation (2022) Energy Saving Trust. Available at: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/cavity-wall-insulation/ (Accessed: February 5, 2023).
Image credits:
Windfarm in dry grass landscape – photo by Jamie Hagan on Unsplash
Woman looking at laptop – photo by Adam Satria on Unsplash
Le Creuset pot – photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
Looking out of a cottage window – photo by Rob Wingate on Unsplash
Pink loft insulation – created from a photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
Washing machine in laundry room – photo by PlanetCare on Unsplash
Shirts hanging on a rail – photo by Parker Burchfield on Unsplash
Blue-green refrigerator – photo by Latrach Med Jamil on Unsplash
Lightbulbs – photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash
Person wearing a jumper, using a laptop – photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Woman sitting on the floor wearing socks and a jumper – photo by Mc Jefferson Agloro on Unsplash
Kettle – photo by Oriol Pascual on Unsplash
Windfarm with sunset – photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash
Solar panels on a roof – photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
Man drawing plans – photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash
Kitchen with patio doors – photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash