You don’t need a full renovation to bring your energy bills down – most Irish households can cut what they spend on electricity and gas with ten straightforward changes, several of which cost nothing at all. Combined with bigger long-term investments like insulation or residential solar panels, these habits can meaningfully lower your bill within a single billing cycle.
Key Takeaways
- Heating, hot water, and how you use big appliances like the tumble dryer offer the biggest wins; lighting and standby savings are smaller but still worth doing.
- Combined, these ten changes can cut a typical Irish household’s annual energy bill by roughly €150–€300, often without spending anything upfront.
- Most of these ideas are free or low-cost and can be started this week: turning off standby, cutting shower time, and line-drying clothes all cost nothing.
- This guide focuses on ten proven, everyday actions rather than expensive renovations or new appliances.
- You’ll come away knowing exactly where to look for savings in every room of the home, from the kitchen to the hot press.
At a Glance: 10 Easy Ways to Save Energy at Home
Short on time? Here’s the full list before the detail below – skim it now, then come back to the sections that matter most for your home.
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Combining several of these tips, rather than picking just one, is what produces a noticeable difference on your bill and your household’s carbon footprint over a 12-month period.
1. Set Your Thermostat and Heating Controls Wisely
Heating is usually the single biggest part of a home energy bill in Ireland’s climate, so it’s the best place to start.
- Turning the thermostat down by just 1°C, for example from 21°C to 20°C, can save up to around 10% on heating costs over the winter.
- Aim for around 19–20°C in living areas, with bedrooms and hallways a little cooler at 15–18°C, for a comfortable balance between warmth and efficiency.
- A programmable or smart thermostat lets you heat rooms only when you actually need them, such as 06:30–08:30 and 17:00–22:00 on weekdays, with a different schedule at weekends.
- Use thermostatic radiator valves to lower or switch off radiators in spare rooms or rarely used spaces, rather than heating the whole house to the same temperature.
2. Swap to Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs and Cut Lighting Waste
Lighting is one of the simplest, most visible ways to save energy quickly, especially in homes still using halogen or older bulbs.
- Modern LED bulbs use roughly 80–90% less electricity than old incandescent bulbs and last many times longer, so the swap pays for itself quickly.
- Replacing ten old 60W bulbs with ten equivalent 8–9W LEDs cuts the electricity used for that lighting by around 85%, which adds up over a typical evening’s use across a whole home.
- Get into the habit of turning lights off whenever you leave a room, even for a few minutes – it reduces electricity use immediately and extends the bulb’s life.
- Choose the lowest wattage LED that still gives comfortable brightness, and match the colour temperature to the room: warm white suits living rooms, cool white tends to work better in kitchens.
- Do a quick weekend “bulb audit,” then prioritise replacing the least efficient bulbs first, usually the ones used for the longest hours each day.
3. Turn Appliances Off – Don’t Rely on Standby
Many devices quietly draw “phantom” or standby power around the clock, adding to your electricity bill even when nothing is actively being used.
- Common culprits include TVs, games consoles, desktop computers, printers, sound bars, set-top boxes, and phone or laptop chargers left plugged in.
- Standby power can account for roughly 5–10% of a typical home’s electricity use, which is a meaningful amount to claw back for very little effort.
- Switching devices off fully at the wall, or using a smart power strip, removes this hidden drain without you having to remember every individual plug.
- A simple routine, such as switching everything in the living room off at the socket every night, or using a master/slave power bar that cuts power to peripherals when the TV or PC turns off, makes this effortless.
- Fridges, freezers, certain routers, and medical equipment usually need to stay on, so always check manufacturer guidance before switching anything off at the wall.
4. Be Smart With Your Washing Machine and Dishwasher
Most of the energy these appliances use goes into heating water, so small changes to temperature and frequency make a real difference.
- Wash everyday loads at 30°C instead of 40°C or 60°C, using a detergent designed for cooler washes; modern detergents handle this well.
- Use eco or shorter cycles where appropriate, and only run the washing machine or dishwasher with a full load to get the most out of each cycle’s energy use.
- Avoid frequent half loads, since a washing machine or dishwasher uses nearly as much energy for a half load as a full one.
- Cutting your wash temperature and skipping just one extra dishwasher cycle a week can save a typical household somewhere in the region of €20–€40 a year.
- Clean filters regularly and follow basic manufacturer maintenance advice, since a well-maintained machine keeps running efficiently for longer.
5. Take Shorter Showers and Use Hot Water Efficiently
After space heating, hot water is usually the second-biggest part of a household’s energy use.
- Aim for showers of around four minutes; a timer or a four-minute playlist on your phone makes this an easy habit to build.
- Swapping just one weekly bath for a quick shower noticeably cuts both water use and the energy needed to heat that water.
- Set your hot water cylinder thermostat to around 60–65°C, which balances safety, including legionella protection, with efficiency, without wastefully overheating the tank.
- Fix dripping hot taps promptly, avoid leaving taps running, and consider fitting an inexpensive tap aerator to reduce flow while keeping decent pressure.
- Together, these habits can add up to tens of euro a year off your energy bill in a typical family home.
6. Avoid the Tumble Dryer and Dry Clothes Efficiently
Tumble dryers are among the most energy-hungry appliances in an Irish home, particularly older vented models.
- Line-dry clothes outdoors, or use an indoor airer, whenever the weather and space allow, especially through spring and summer.
- In smaller homes or flats, a foldable drying rack, an over-bath rack, or a dehumidifier can dry clothes faster and with far less energy than a tumble dryer.
- If you do need the dryer, spin clothes well in the washing machine first, separate heavy and light fabrics, and clean the lint filter every time to cut drying time.
- Cutting tumble dryer use in half over a year can save a typical household roughly €50–€100, depending on how often it was being used before.
- If a tumble dryer is unavoidable, running it during the day rather than in the evening makes the most of any solar panels for homes you may already have installed, since that electricity is free at the point of use.
- Line-dried clothes also tend to last longer than tumble-dried ones, which indirectly saves money on replacing worn-out clothing.
7. Only Heat the Hot Water You Actually Need
Continually heating a full cylinder of water you don’t use is a quiet but persistent waste of energy and money.
- Use an immersion or boiler timer so hot water heats up just before you typically need it, such as early morning and early evening, rather than running 24/7.
- Avoid boosting the immersion heater just to wash a few dishes or rinse a single item; size the heating to match realistic, everyday use.
- Insulating the hot water cylinder with a proper lagging jacket, and adding foam insulation to accessible hot water pipes, keeps water hotter for longer between heating cycles.
- These insulation upgrades are usually a low-cost DIY job that can pay for itself in energy savings within about a year.
- Getting hot water heating under control is one of the quickest “set and forget” ways to save energy at home, since it keeps working without any daily effort from you.
8. Turn Off Lights and Make the Most of Daylight
Lighting habits have an immediate, visible effect on electricity use, especially during darker autumn and winter evenings.
- Turn off lights whenever you leave a room, and avoid lighting spaces nobody is using, such as an empty hallway or a spare room.
- Rearrange furniture where you can to make better use of natural light from windows, which reduces how early you need to switch lights on.
- Open curtains fully during daylight hours, then close them at dusk, since this both maximises natural light and helps retain heat once it gets dark.
- Use sensors or timers for outdoor lighting so garden or security lights aren’t left burning all night unnecessarily.
- Combined with switching to LED bulbs, these habits give you a complete, low-cost lighting strategy for the whole home.
9. Plug Draughts and Insulate Key Spots
Small gaps around windows, doors, floors and chimneys let warm air escape, forcing your heating system to work harder than it should.
- Fit simple, inexpensive draught proofing: self-adhesive strips around doors and windows, draught excluders at the bottom of doors, and covers for keyholes or letterboxes where needed.
- Use a chimney balloon or a purpose-made draught stopper in any unused fireplace to stop cold air dropping into the room.
- Check for gaps around pipework, cables and loft hatches, and seal them with appropriate materials, while keeping the ventilation your home actually needs for safety.
- Insulating hot water pipes and the cylinder itself, as covered above, reduces heat loss in the same way draught proofing does for the building envelope.
- Most of these measures are one-off jobs that keep delivering comfort and energy savings for years afterwards.
10. Identify Opportunities With a Simple Home Energy Check
Rather than guessing where your energy is going, a quick walk-through of your own home will show you the biggest opportunities.
- Go room by room – kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathroom, utility area – with a notepad, listing where energy is being used: heating, lighting, appliances, hot water.
- Where you have one, use a plug-in electricity monitor or your smart meter display to see real-time energy use as different appliances switch on and off.
- Prioritise the biggest users first: heating, hot water, the tumble dryer, and always-on appliances, before worrying about smaller items.
- Set 2–3 concrete goals for the next 30 days, such as “replace all hallway and kitchen bulbs with LEDs by the end of the month” or “cut tumble dryer use to once a week.”
- Reviewing your energy use regularly, not just once, is what keeps the savings going well beyond the first week after making changes.
Bringing It All Together: Save Energy, Cut Bills, Stay Comfortable
These ten practical steps work together to lower your energy use, reduce your bills, and keep your home comfortable through every season. No single tip here is a magic fix, but combining several easy changes across lighting, heating, hot water and appliance use adds up to a meaningful difference over a full year.
- Start with the simplest actions today: turning off standby, shortening showers, and cutting back on the tumble dryer.
- Then move on to small investments, such as LED bulbs and hot water cylinder insulation, which pay for themselves within a year or so.
- Saving energy at home also shrinks your household’s carbon footprint, alongside the savings on your bill.
- For the bigger picture – including insulation, heating upgrades and solar – see our Ultimate Guide to Saving Energy at Home.
- You can start saving money and energy before your next bill arrives by making just one or two of these changes today.
FAQ
A few practical questions that don’t fit neatly into the ten tips above.
How much can I realistically save on my annual energy bills?
- Savings depend on your home’s size, current energy use, and how many of these tips you adopt, but a typical household implementing several consistently can expect somewhere in the region of €150–€300 a year.
- The biggest savings usually come from changes to heating, hot water, and tumble dryer use, while lighting and standby reductions add smaller, but still worthwhile, amounts.
- Track two or three bills after making changes to see the real impact on your own household.
Is it worth replacing working appliances with more energy-efficient models?
- It’s usually best to keep using existing appliances efficiently until they’re near the end of their life, then choose an energy-efficient replacement, such as an A-rated model.
- Check the energy label and estimated annual running cost before buying, rather than focusing only on the purchase price.
- Bigger upgrades, like a new fridge, washing machine, or heat pump water heater, can meaningfully reduce long-term energy use, but they aren’t “quick wins” in the way the ten tips above are.
Do smart thermostats and smart plugs really help me save energy?
- Smart thermostats can automatically reduce heating when everyone’s out or asleep, often cutting heating energy use by several percent without any loss of comfort.
- Smart plugs or power strips let you schedule devices to switch off, or control them remotely, so things that would otherwise sit on standby actually get turned off.
- The actual savings depend on how actively you use the features, so they suit people who are willing to set schedules and occasionally adjust them.
What should I prioritise if I rent and can’t make big changes to the property?
- Focus on low-cost, non-permanent actions: LED bulbs, turning appliances fully off, shorter showers, careful tumble dryer use, and moveable draught excluders.
- Removable window film, thick curtains, and door snakes (where your landlord allows) can improve comfort without altering the building itself.
- It’s worth raising simple, mutually beneficial improvements with your landlord, such as a cylinder jacket or basic draught proofing, since these typically cost little and benefit both of you.
How can I keep motivation to maintain these energy-saving habits long term?
- Set small, time-bound goals and review your progress monthly, rather than trying to change everything overnight.
- Involve the whole household, including children, by turning energy saving into a shared challenge, such as aiming to use less than the same month last year.
- A smart meter display or even a simple spreadsheet helps you track, and celebrate, real improvements in your energy use and bills over time.
