I might write about all things home energy for a living, but while I spend day in day out researching or trying out ways to use less energy, I'll admit, I don't always follow my own advice (no matter how much I want to).
While I've tried lots of ways to save energy at home over the years, especially since the energy crisis saw the price cap exceed £4000 a year, there's still more I can do to stop wasting energy needlessly around the house.
So I've got a plan for the new year. I've picked three bad habits I know I have when it comes to my energy usage and I'm going to tackle them head on, with the goal of ditching them for good.
1. Leaving the shower running while I do my skincare
There's no way that I'm jumping in a cold shower while I wait for it to warm up. Zero. Zilch. And so I've got into a habit of turning my shower on and starting my skincare routine while I wait for it to warm up.
But what I'm starting to realise is that my routine is not as quick as I thought it was, and that by the time I'm done and am getting in the shower, a good couple of minutes has passed, and the shower has probably been warm for a while. And all that hot water is just going straight down the drain.
And when you consider that I could save £60 per year by keeping my shower to less than 4 minutes (according to Uswitch), this is definitely something I need to be more conscious of if I want to reduce my energy usage.
2. Forgetting to close the window
One of my more pointless talents is being able to tell whether a house has had a window open recently. Don't ask me how that works, it just one of life's mysteries.
I love giving my home a blast of fresh air. But what usually starts as an intention to burp my home, quickly turns into forgetting to shut the windows and realising later that the heat from my radiator has probably had a jolly old time floating straight out of the open window.
But no more. Ultimately, I would love to have a smart heating system that either alerts me, or turns off the heating if it detects a window is open. But until then, I am going to make use of setting up reminders on my smart speaker, to remind me to close my windows after 10 minutes so that I get all the benefits of fresh air, without letting all the heat out.
I've had an Echo Dot for years and love it. The model I have has been replaced by newer models including this Echo Pop, which is similarly compact and discreet.
3. Using my tumble dryer on a dry day
We all know that tumble dryers are energy guzzling appliances, sometimes drying clothes without a dryer just doesn't work for me.
While I try to use it in an efficient way (I use these £8.49 wool tumble dryer balls from Amazon, dry similar fabrics together and don't over fill it), I've got it in my head that drying clothes outside in winter is out of the question.
So my mission in 2026 is to remind myself that isn't necessarily the case. A dry and mild day with a bit of a breeze is entirely possible at this time of year and will still get my washing dry. And it's free.
I'm a big believer that to stick with energy-saving measures, they can't be overwhelming. One of my favourites that I've tried so far is the radiator reflectors I installed more than three years ago. I don't have to think about them at all, I just sit back and enjoy the benefits.
