Five common habits that increase your home energy usage

As the price of energy continues to rise, and an estimated 15 million households spend more than 10% of their income on heating their home,¹ it’s increasingly important to take control over our home energy.

To help you spot areas where you could save money, we’ve rounded up five common habits that can result in spending more on energy than you need to.

Running the hot water system for longer than needed

Around 17% of a home’s energy goes towards heating hot water,² so it’s an area where big savings could be made.

Most households don’t need to leave their hot water system running all day. But many do, either without realising or thinking it’s more efficient (it’s not).

Leaving your hot water system running all day can be very expensive, particularly if you have an electric emersion heater.

A more efficient solution is to set your hot water heater to run at certain times using a timer. Often, running it once in the morning and once in the early evening should be enough.

The most effective way to find out how long to set the timer is simply to experiment - try different settings to see what works for you (e.g. an hour in the morning and evening, or three 30-minute bursts throughout the day).

Setting the thermostat higher than needed

You know that it costs more to heat a home to a higher temperature. But did you know that each degree you turn up the thermostat can increase your heating bill by around 10%?³

It’s easy, and admittedly more comfortable, to have the heating turned up while you walk around in a t-shirt. But wearing an extra layer and throwing a blanket over yourself while you relax could reduce your energy bills and carbon emissions by a significant amount.

What’s the ideal temperature? Well, between 18C and 21C is commonly recommended. But this will vary per room (e.g. your bedroom should be cooler when you sleep).

Leaving the heating on while you’re out

In the habit of leaving the heating on when you pop out for a few hours? You could be losing out...

In general, it’s better for your pocket and the environment to turn off the heating when you head out. But this really depends on how long you’re out for and how well insulated your home is.

The average UK home loses around three degrees every five hours, when the heating isn’t on.⁴ If your home’s well insulated, it may lose less heat. If it’s not well insulated, it could lose more.

So let’s say that you heat your home to 20 degrees and turn off the heating while you head out for the evening. When you come back, five hours later, your home would be around 17 degrees. If you’re planning on going straight to bed, this is the perfect temperature for sleeping. To maintain that temperature, you could turn the heating on again and set the thermostat at a lower 17 degrees.

Now let’s imagine you leave the heating on at 21C while you head out. For five hours, your boiler will be working hard to maintain that temperature. When you return, it’ll still be 21C but since you’re heading to bed, you’ll probably turn the thermostat down (or the boiler off) anyway. The energy used to heat the home while you were out would be wasted.

Of course, if you’re just popping to the shops for 20 minutes, turning off the heating is unlikely to be of much benefit. But for longer trips, save your pocket and the environment but turning it off.

Not maintaining the heating system

Your heating system needs servicing from time to time to continue operating efficiently. This can include boilers, emersion heaters and radiators.

This is because grime and air can gradually build up in your system which makes it more difficult for heat to flow around your home. The more difficult it is to transfer heat, the harder your boiler needs to work and the more your energy bill will cost.

Some maintenance you can do yourself, such as bleeding radiators. But when it comes to servicing your boiler, you’ll want to call out an engineer. Heating engineers are specially trained experts who can service your entire heating system and restore it back to health.

We recommend servicing your heating system at least once a year for best results.

Focusing on the exciting stuff before the fundamentals

Interest is growing in solar panels, heat pumps and other green energy installations. And this is great. Greener installations can reduce energy bills, benefit the environment and make a home more comfortable!

But it’s easy to focus attention on these new exciting technologies before addressing more fundamental issues, such as making sure your home is well insulated.

If your home’s poorly insulated, installing solar panels or a heat pump could be like pouring water into a leaky bucket - you’ll need to keep pouring more water (heat) to keep the bucket (your home) topped up, which isn’t the most efficient way to keep your home warm.

So before replacing your current heating system, consider insulating your home to a higher standard. This might include floor insulation or loft insulation. In some cases, you could also consider improving your wall insulation (if you don’t mind the extra expense and disruption - speak to an installer for the best advice).

Once your home is well insulated, you’ll be in an ideal position to consider green energy systems.

Of course, every home is different and will need a different approach to energy efficiency. To find out how to make YOUR home more energy efficient, get your free personalised home energy efficiency plan with Snugg.