The guide to home energy management: Seven golden rules to follow

27 March 2023 · Updated 1 October 2024

Fight climate change and cut your energy bills: going green at home is a win-win.

From switching up daily habits to adopting the latest tech, there are loads of things you can do.

But working out exactly what can feel like a bit of a minefield.

Should you get an air source heat pump?
What’s the most energy efficient way to cook?
How do you get the most out of solar panels?

Throughout we’ll refer to kilowatt hours, or kWh. It’s the standard unit of energy used by utility companies and it makes it simple to compare different appliances.

We’ll cover:

The seven golden rules of an energy efficient home
Home energy walk-through
Heating your home
Generating your own energy
Become a home energy guru with smart technology

The seven golden rules of an energy efficient home

First up, the seven golden rules that will help make any home energy efficient.

Out with the old, in with the new

Ditch older, energy hungry appliances in favour of modern ones. Nowadays fridges, cookers, washing machines and other appliances are designed to guzzle less energy without compromising performance.

Take control of your heating

In a typical household, heating uses the most energy. A programmable or smart thermostat lets you preset when it comes on and off. And turning down the thermostat by 1℃ can cut up to 10% off your energy bill.

Keep the warmth in and the weather out

Insulation and weather-proofing will minimise heat escaping from your home, keeping you warm while reducing your bills and carbon footprint.

See the light

LED light bulbs use up to 90% less energy than old fashioned halogen bulbs. They can also last up to 25 times longer.

Harness the sun

Solar panels: the ultimate ray of sunshine. Free electricity that doesn’t harm the planet. You can even make a few quid by selling what you don’t use back to the grid.

Go smart

Smart technology lets you control thermostats and appliances using a smartphone app. With a few taps you can turn down your heating, schedule the eco-cycle on your washing machine, and turn plug sockets off.

Get into good habits

It’s not all about the latest tech. Small changes in your habits can go a long way. Turn off lights when you leave a room, close windows when it’s cold outside, and don’t boil more water than you need in the kettle.

A home energy walk-through

Now let’s do a deep dive into an average home and how to manage the most common energy-hungry activities.

In the kitchen

Cooking food. Washing dishes. Doing the laundry.

The kitchen can be a hive of activity. There’s plenty of scope for reducing energy, but what should you focus on?

Cooking: oven vs air fryer vs slow cooker

Most households use an oven, but other options have become mainstream too. How efficient are air fryers and slow cookers?

Consumer group Which? tested how much energy each one used to roast a chicken.

Method	Energy use
Built in electric oven	1.157kWh
Air fryer	0.54kWh
Slow cooker	0.9kWh

The air fryer comes out on top, with the slow cooker runner up. However, the smaller cooking pots on these two mean an electric oven could still be the most efficient option if you’re cooking a big meal.

THE WINNER:
The air fryer, unless you’re cooking a big meal

Hobs: gas vs electric plate vs induction

What about hobs? The three most common types are: gas, electric plate, and induction.

Gas hobs heat the pan directly over a flame. Electric plate hobs heat up a solid plate. And induction hobs use a magnetic field.

When it comes to boiling a pan of water, which one is best? The UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has the answer:

Method	Average energy consumption per hour	Average energy to boil a pan of water
Induction hob	1.95 kWh	0.504
Gas hob	1.3 kWh	0.72
Electric plate hob	1.65 kWh	0.9

Although the induction hob is the most power-hungry per hour, it heats the water much faster than the other two, so it comes out on top.

**THE WINNER:
**The induction hob, because it works so quickly.

Doing the dishes

Loading the dishwasher and walking away is a great convenience of modern life. But how does it stack up from an energy saving perspective?

Fret not, it’s good news. Put your Marigolds down and make a cup of tea (just don’t overfill the kettle). A dishwasher is generally more energy efficient than doing the dishes by hand.

It does depend on a couple of factors. If you rinse your dishes in hot soapy water before putting them in, you’re reducing the energy efficiency a bit. And it’s important to fully load it.

But, on average you’ll use about 9 to 14 litres of water per dishwasher cycle. That’s typically less than you’d use doing the same amount of dishes by hand.

**THE WINNER:
**The dishwasher, unless you’re a super-rinser or a half-loader.

Doing the laundry

The laundry involves both washing and drying clothes. But which washing machine cycle to use? And what’s the most efficient type of tumble dryer?

Which cycle?

Two factors come into play when it comes to washing machine cycles: temperature and time. Most of the energy goes into heating the water, so lower temperatures equal lower bills.

The length of the cycle isn’t as clear cut. A longer cycle at a low temperature can be more efficient than a short cycle at a high temperature.

20, 30 or 40: how low can you go?

Turning the dial down to 30℃ cuts energy use by 38% compared to a wash at 40℃. Washing at 20℃ uses an impressive 62% less energy.

And according to Which?, 20℃ with a liquid detergent is good enough for everyday cleaning.

If you’re tackling a stain, you probably need to go to 40℃. There is rarely a good reason to go as high as 50℃.

Washing at lower temperatures can prolong the life of your clothes too – good for your pocket, good for your wardrobe, and good for the planet.

THE WINNER:
Washing at 20℃, unless you’ve got some heavy stains to shift.

Tumble dryers

Drying washing in the summer is a breeze. The winter’s a different story and many households turn to a tumble dryer to keep on top of the chores.

But which type is better for your pocket and the planet: vented, condenser, or heat pump?

A vented tumble dryer gets rid of the moisture from your clothes through an external pipe. A condenser dryer doesn’t need a pipe; it deposits the moisture in a reservoir that you empty.

A heat pump dryer uses a reservoir too, but it’s also able to recycle the heat it generates and send it back into the drum. This makes it the most energy efficient.

THE WINNER:
The heat pump tumble dryer

In the bathroom

Bathroom hogs beware: taking your time in the shower churns through a lot of energy. But how long is too long? And is a bath ever better?

Shower vs bath

A typical bath uses around 90 litres of water, two thirds from the hot tap and one third from the cold tap. A typical shower gets through an average of nine litres of water per minute, with the same ratio of hot to cold.

So, a long and luxurious 10 minute shower gets you into territory where it’s cheaper to take a bath.

Research reveals that in the UK we average about 8 minutes in the shower, which is about 54 litres of hot water. If you could manage a two minute shower, you’d get that down to just 12 litres, five times better than a bath.

THE WINNER:
The shower, provided you don’t hog it for too long.

Heating your home

It can take a lot of energy to heat a home. Savings here can have a big impact.

First up, two quick tips: heat the person and don’t let the heat escape.

Heat the person, not the space

Remember that hot water bottle your grandparents used? Turns out they were on to something. If you’re home alone, it’s much more efficient to heat just yourself than it is to heat whole rooms.

Five hours’ worth of central heating typically uses about 120 kWh of energy. Boiling a standard kettle for a hot water bottle five times? Just 0.2 kWh.

Don’t let the heat escape

A poorly insulated home lets a large chunk of the heat you generate drift off into the outside air. According to the Energy Saving Trust, you lose 25% of heat through an uninsulated roof.

When it comes to insulation, quick fixes can go a long way. Add draught proofing to windows and doors, draw curtains and blinds at night, and install or upgrade loft insulation.

Central heating

Almost 75% of households in the UK have gas central heating, but air source heat pumps are becoming a popular alternative. Which one is best for you?

The lowdown on air source heat pumps

Air source heat pumps work like a fridge, but in reverse.

They take air from the outside, and absorb heat from it. It sounds like magic, but they even work when it’s cold outside. Atoms and molecules in the air are still moving and creating energy, even when it gets down to minus figures.

Because they’re transferring heat rather than generating it, air source heat pumps are very energy efficient.

Is an air source heat pump right for me?

Air source heat pumps can be game changing, but there are a few things to consider.

They’re more expensive to buy and fit than a gas combi boiler (though costs are coming down with the help of government grants).
They kick out a lower level of heat, so they work best with underfloor heating or larger radiators.
Because they can’t provide hot water on demand, you may need a hot water storage tank.
Insulation is important, because of the lower level of heat.
You need outside wall space to fix the unit to.

Gas combi boiler vs air source heat pump

A gas combi boiler is typically between about 90%-95% efficient; you lose some of the heat through the pipes. An air source heat pump, on the other hand, is about 300% efficient. For every one kWh of electricity it uses, you get three back in heat.

THE WINNER:
The air source heat pump, if you’ve got the up-front investment and your home is suitable.

Wood burning stoves

Cosy.

Romantic.

Cheap to run.

For a time, wood burning stoves seemed the perfect solution.

But are they really that green?

They do help reduce your carbon footprint. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide. When you burn the wood, that carbon dioxide is released. So, in theory they don’t add anything to your carbon footprint.

But alas, that’s not the full picture. Burning wood releases nasties too: tiny fragments of soot that pollute the environment and can cause health problems. For this reason, they’re not as green as previously thought.

Generating your own energy

We’ve covered how to cut back on the energy you use. Now let’s turn our attention to generating your own.

Solar panels and battery storage: a game changer

Solar panels are simple to install and they can slash your energy bills. In recent years their cost has come down and payback periods are shorter.

But the problem is, they only work during daylight hours.

And a typical home uses a lot of energy in the evening, so you still end up buying a large chunk of your electricity from your supplier.

That’s where home battery storage comes in.

Combining your solar panels with a battery is a game changer. You can store that clean, green, and free solar energy for later, when you need it most.

It’s easy to retrofit a battery to an existing solar panel system, but you do need space in your home or garage. They go from about the size of a small bookcase to the size of a small fridge, depending on how big your system is.

A solar panel and battery combination that’s specced correctly for your home can cut your energy bills by a whopping 80% – 90%.

Become a home energy guru with smart technology

Hot water bottles and draught excluders. A lot of energy advice is as old as the hills.

While plenty of the old hat ways still work, technology is set to revolutionise how we use energy at home.

A smart home energy system gives you a simple interface that shows you what you’re using and (if you have solar panels) what you’re generating. Sort of like a banking app, but for energy.

They can connect to devices and appliances across your home, allowing you to turn them on and off and adjust them from your phone.

The future: optimise your energy with AI

Artificial intelligence is taking things up a notch.

In the future, AI-enabled home energy systems will optimise how you use energy without you lifting a finger.

They’ll know when to turn things on and off and whether to use energy from your solar panels, your home battery, or the grid.

Say your solar panels work at full tilt between 10am and 4pm, but tail off after that.

Then, at 6pm you start ramping up your home energy use, and peak at 7pm.

No problem. Your smart system can take care of it all.

During sunny daylight hours, it makes the most of the solar energy. It ensures your home battery is topped up. It charges other devices around the home. It might run the washing machine.

After all that’s taken care of, it can start selling any excess energy you’re generating to the grid.

Then, when the sun goes down, it automatically switches to the battery-stored electricity, just in time for the tea-time rush hour.

It prioritises the things you need most: cooker, dishwasher, lights, and everything else you use at that time, drawing as much as possible from the battery.

Then, you go to bed and it powers down everything but the basics: the fridge, the broadband, and the rest.

Sweet dreams.

Electric vehicle chargers

The final piece of the puzzle in creating the ultimate low carbon home is hooking an electric vehicle (EV) charger into your system.

Combining solar panels, battery storage, a home energy system, and an EV charger will make you a home energy guru.

As well as free juice for your car, EV battery charging is another opportunity to capture that solar energy for use later. What’s more, vehicle-to-grid (or V2G for short) technology enables you to sell the energy stored in your EV back to the grid if you don’t need it.

When your car’s sat in your driveway and plugged in, you choose to keep it topped up or send some of the electricity from the battery back to the grid. It’s an extra little earner and can help the National Grid balance supply and demand for electricity too.

About Powerverse

We’re industry experts in home energy management. Our easy-to-use app is built for your future electric home. It will effortlessly sync your solar, battery, heat pump, EV charger and more, helping you cut costs and your carbon footprint on your way to becoming energy-independent. Curious to know more? Talk to one of our experts.

Also, if you’re considering installing solar panels, we’d be more than happy to recommend several trusted partners who can provide and install them for you.