Use a microwave. Generally a microwave oven is the most efficient way to heat up and cook food.

Keeping the oven door closed while you are cooking helps keep your oven at a stable temperature. It can also improve your cooking whilst saving you energy.

Spending one minute less in the shower each day will save up to £8 a year off your energy bills, per person. With a water meter this could save a further £11 off annual water and sewerage bills. If everyone in a four-person household did this it would lead to a total saving of £75 a year.

Hanging out clothes to dry will save you energy and money over using a tumble drier.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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