Boiling food on the hob? Only use the water you need to save energy.

About a quarter of all our clean, drinkable water at home is flushed down the toilet. Place a sealed bottle of water or brick in your cistern to reduce this amount.

Carbon monoxide is a silent killer. Every year in the UK it kills around 50 people and sends 4000 to A&E for emergency treatment. Make sure you get all your combustion appliances properly serviced and fit an alarm. Good quality alarms are available from most DIY suppliers and take minutes to fit. It could save your life!

Some vulnerable people need to keep their homes warmer than normal. However, most of us can save money and energy by dressing for the weather and putting on a jumper before turning up the heating.

Fitting a new insulating jacket to a bare hot water tank can save over £100 per year. Costing just a few pounds, the investment can pay itself off in a few months.

Thermal or heavy blinds and curtains can help trap heat and reduce draughts. Close them at night to reduce heating bills.

Check the programmer on your heating and hot water to make sure the timings match your needs. If you don’t have a seven-day programmer fitted consider getting one.

Using lids on your pans when cooking will save energy and help heat the contents quicker.

If your charger has an LED to show it’s in use, it is still using energy until you switch it off at the wall or unplug it.

When cooking you can often use the residual heat to to save energy if you switch your cooker off just before you finish cooking. However, you still need to make sure that your food is properly cooked through.