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Thanks to rising gas and electricity bills, saving energy in the home has never been more paramount. Reducing your home’s overall energy output can actually see you reaping the rewards through lowered energy bills, therefore it comes as no surprise that homeowners across the nation are taking small steps to saving energy in the home.

From changing how you bathe and wash your clothes, to simply changing your central heating pump – there are a number of short and long term, cost effective changes you can make in your home to save energy in 2013.

Here are just a few simple and affordable ways that you can save energy in your home and enjoy great savings on your energy bills as a result:

Cut Down on Phantom Loads
‘Phantom Loads’ is the term given to energy that any appliance consumes when it isn’t turned on. This can be energy that is drawn from devices such as televisions or laptops when they go into the standby mode. To cut down on this unnecessary energy consumption, simply unplug electronic devices and appliances at the wall.

Wash Economically
Many washing machines come with the setting of an ‘economy wash’, this setting usually lowers the temperature down to 30°C, the lowest possible wash temperature. An economy wash allows you to save on energy bills as a lower temperature is required, however remember to choose a special detergent which will effectively clean your clothes even at lower temperatures.

Take Showers, not Baths
A 2011 study on water consumption in the home found that an average 8 minute shower uses 62 litres of hot water, while the average bath used 80 litres. Taking shorter showers rather than baths can help to reduce your home’s water consumption while also reducing the amount of hot water you require – meaning that your home’s central heating pump will operate for a shorter amount of time, helping to save on those energy bills.

Check your Home’s Circulator Pump
Speaking of heating, the majority of homes have heating circulator pumps installed, The purpose of this pump is to take warm water from the boiler and then circulate it around the home before returning cold water back to the boiler to be heated. Guidelines were recently introduced to ensure that only the most energy efficient of heating pumps are to be used, therefore swapping a current inefficient pump, generally a D-Labelled pump, for an energy efficient A-Labelled circulator pump will see you saving up to 80% on your heating system’s energy output.