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.

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.

Fill a jug with tap water and leave it to cool in your fridge. You’ll save water by not having to run the tap for ages to get a cold drink.

Solid brick walls can be insulated internally or externally to reduce heat loss.

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

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.

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

Giving your plants’ roots a good soaking once or twice a week in dry weather is much better than lightly watering them every day because most of that water just evaporates away. However, new plants do need regular watering until they are established.

Think before your print. Reducing the amount of material you print has a long list of benefits including saving paper, chemicals and electricity. More and more offices and industries are going paper free, so think about how you can reduce any printing you do.