Between the standing charge, the unit rate and a British winter that rarely does us any favours, keeping the house warm can feel like an expensive business. The encouraging news is that a good chunk of the money you save does not come from shivering under a blanket. It comes from a handful of small, practical changes — most of them free or costing only a few pounds — that stop heat and electricity disappearing wastefully in the first place.

Start with the draughts

Draughts are the cheapest and quickest win in almost every home. Cold air creeping under a door or through a window frame makes a room feel far colder than it actually is, which tempts you to nudge the thermostat up another degree. Blocking that air is a job you can finish in an afternoon.

• Doors: fit a brush or foam strip along the bottom of external doors, and a flap over the letterbox. Keyhole covers cost pennies and make a surprising difference in a hallway.
• Windows: self-adhesive foam or silicone sealant around the frame will close up gaps that let in both cold air and noise. If you have sash windows, a simple draught strip along the moving edges helps enormously.
• Chimneys and fireplaces: an unused open chimney is effectively a permanent hole in your ceiling. A chimney draught excluder or inflatable pillow stops warm air vanishing up it when the fire is not lit.
• Floorboards and skirting: gaps between boards can be filled with a flexible filler, and a bead of sealant along the skirting board will see off a lot of creeping cold.

Take control of your heating

Heating and hot water make up the largest share of most household energy bills, so this is where the bigger savings live. You do not need a new boiler to make progress — you need better control over the one you have.

Turning the thermostat down by just one degree is commonly quoted as saving somewhere in the region of £70 to £80 a year for a typical household, and most people genuinely cannot feel the difference. Set it to the lowest temperature you are comfortable at, usually somewhere between 18°C and 21°C, and put on a jumper before you reach for the dial.

If you have a combi boiler, check the flow temperature. Many are left at 80°C from installation, when 60°C to 65°C will heat the radiators perfectly well while using noticeably less gas. Your radiators will feel slightly cooler to the touch but the rooms will still reach temperature — it simply takes a little longer. A heating engineer can adjust this in minutes if you would rather not touch it yourself.

Finally, use your thermostatic radiator valves properly. Set living rooms to a comfortable middle setting, bedrooms a notch lower, and turn off radiators completely in rooms you do not use. There is no sense paying to heat a spare bedroom nobody is sitting in. Bleeding radiators once a year, so they heat evenly from top to bottom, is another free win.

Rethink how you use hot water

Heating water is expensive, and much of it is wasted before it ever reaches you. A shower typically uses far less hot water than a deep bath, and a low-flow or aerated shower head can cut that further while still feeling powerful. Cutting a fifteen-minute shower down to eight minutes saves both water and the gas used to heat it.

If you have a hot water cylinder, check it has a well-fitted insulating jacket — these cost very little and pay for themselves within a year. Lagging any exposed hot water pipes in a cold loft or garage is another job that takes an hour and keeps paying you back.

Make your appliances work smarter

Appliances are the quiet drain on most electricity bills, and the biggest offender is usually the tumble dryer.

• Washing machines: wash at 30°C on a full load. Modern detergents work perfectly well at lower temperatures, and heating the water is where most of the energy goes.
• Tumble dryers: use them as a last resort. A drying rack near a radiator, or a washing line on any dry day, costs nothing at all.
• Dishwashers: run them only when full and choose the eco cycle, which uses less water and energy than a hot hand wash.
• Fridges and freezers: keep them away from ovens and radiators, leave a gap at the back for air to circulate, and dust the coils occasionally. Aim for around 4°C in the fridge and -18°C in the freezer — colder settings simply burn more electricity.
• Kettles: boil only the water you need, and descale regularly so it heats efficiently.

Lighting, standby and the gadgets that quietly cost money

Replacing any remaining halogen bulbs with LEDs is one of the most straightforward swaps you can make, using a fraction of the electricity and lasting for years. Beyond that, look at what is still drawing power when nobody is using it. Televisions, games consoles, set-top boxes and chargers left on standby can add up to a meaningful sum over a year. Switching them off at the wall, or grouping them onto a single switched extension lead, takes seconds once it becomes a habit.

Free help and the longer-term wins

It is worth checking whether you qualify for support. The Warm Home Discount, Cold Weather Payments and your supplier's priority services register exist precisely for households that need them, and many people who are entitled never claim. Your local council can also advise on grants for insulation.

Longer term, thicker loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and radiator reflector panels all reduce how much heat escapes. Start with the free and cheap measures first — the draughts, the thermostat, the washing machine — and you will often find the difference on your next bill before you have spent very much at all.