Reducing your household energy use is one of the best ways to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle but it can be tough. If you do a quick search online, you’ll find lots of advice about changing the insulation or upgrading your windows to double glazing but that’s all so expensive. Not everybody has the money to start doing big home renovations, so what are you supposed to do? The good news is, you don’t have to spend lots of money to reduce your energy use, there are lots of simple things that you can do instead. These are some of the cheapest ways to cut energy use around your home.

Pixabay CCO License

Change Your Habits 

The first and most important thing is to change your habits. If you leave things on standby a lot and don’t bother to switch the lights off when you leave a room, you’re wasting so much energy all of the time. But if you learn to take more notice of the energy that you’re using and train yourself out of these bad habits, you can reduce your energy use by quite a bit. It’s not that hard to do if you get everybody in the house on board and you all remind each other to switch things off. Eventually, it becomes second nature and you’ll do it without even thinking about it.

Window Shutters 

Windows are a big problem, especially if you don’t have double glazing. But upgrading your windows is very expensive and it’s simply not an option for some people. However, you can improve the insulation on your windows a lot if you add some shutters. If you browse the many interior shutter styles, you’ll be able to find something that goes well with the rest of the decor. When closed, they give you another layer of insulation to keep the heat in. They’re also great for controlling the amount of light that you get in the room.

LED Light Bulbs 

LED light bulbs are so much more efficient than standard ones and they will save you a lot of money if you switch. They use a fraction of the energy that a normal light bulb does and they also last up to 20 years, so you hardly ever need to worry about changing them. If you spend a little bit more, you can get colour changing smart bulbs that you control from your phone, so you can alter the lighting however you like.

Draught Proofing 

A lot of heat is lost in homes through small gaps in the exterior, and that means you have to use a lot more energy to heat them. But if you draught proof the house, you should see a big drop in your energy consumption overnight. A lot of draughts come in underneath doorways so you should get a few cheap draught excluders or even just use a rolled up towel. If you have a fireplace that you don’t use, you can get the chimney blocked off with a balloon to stop heat from escaping that way as well.

You don’t have to spend lots of money on extensive home renovations to cut your energy use, just try some of these cheap and easy fixes instead.

This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links