Learning how to use energy more efficiently at home could help you save a lot of money on your home heating oil bills in the long term, and at this time of year any savings are a bonus! If you’re thinking you’ll have to drastically change your lifestyle in order to see savings, don’t worry – simple adjustments are all you need to start seeing great savings at home on your energy spend. Want to find out more? Read our tips below and start saving today.

• Use your thermostat to heat the house only when you need it to – have it set to come on half an hour before you get up in the morning, and before your get home from work so that the house is the perfect temperature.

• Don’t block the radiators with furniture – try and pull your larger pieces of furniture (beds, sofas, wardrobes) away from radiators to let the warm air circulate around the room better, otherwise you will always feel cold even with the heating on.

• Don’t use the radiators to hang wet clothes on – it might help them dry quicker, but you’ll end up wasting precious home heating oi in the process as your heating has to be on for longer to heat the room and the condensation created from drying clothes all over the house can lead to damp problems.

• Check your insulation is adequate – roof insulation should be around 270mm thick to prevent heat loss, and if you lose up to 50% of your home’s heating through the roof as a result of inadequate insulation, it also means a huge waste of home heating oil too.

• Use a smart meter to measure how much you are using, and see where you can make easy savings. These home energy monitors let you easily see where you’re spending more money so that you can make simple changes and savings and use your energy more efficiently at home.

• Low energy light bulbs all over the house will help you make significant savings on your electricity bills. They cost slightly more the buy outright, but if you replace them over time they should last longer and help save money in the long term.

• Including a low flow shower head in the bathroom will help you use less hot water each morning, and if you use your home heating oil to heat your water then you’ll save money this way as well as helping the environment by reducing your water usage.

• Don’t leave your devices plugged in charging all night – try and charge them during the day so that you are more aware of how quickly they take to fully charge, or if your devices have the ‘battery care’ option make sure to activate it. This slows the charging process down over several hours so that it causes less damage to your phone battery.

• Get your boiler serviced to ensure you are using energy most efficiently – an old boiler will not convert your oil into usable heating for your home as well as a newer model, and will cost you more in the long run through these inefficiencies, breakdowns and repairs.