Smart controls can help ensure your home is comfortable and energy efficient.

Draught excluders are a cheap way of cutting out the chill from poorly fitting doors and windows. Most are also easy to fit, a simple DIY task.

Save energy with your washing machine. Modern washing powders often let you achieve the same results with lower temperatures.

Thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) help ensure your heating is evenly distributed where you need it. Check them to make sure they are set properly so each area reaches the temperature you need and gets no hotter.

Washing a small load of clothes? Check you washing machine’s settings to see if you can use the “half load” programme to save water and energy.

Get into the habit of turning lights off when you leave a room. A family could save between £50 and £90 a year just by remembering to flick a switch, if they don’t already do this.

A dripping tap can waste at least 5,500 litres of water a year. If this is hot water you’re also wasting the energy used to heat it. Get leaking taps fixed promptly.

Remember to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth – a running tap wastes over 6 litres per minute.

Only fill your kettle with the water you need. You will save both water and energy.

Insulate hot water pipes along their full length. Don’t waste the energy you have used to heat your hot water.