Turn your thermostat down. Reducing your room temperature by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent.

Use energy saving light bulbs and turn off lights when you leave a room. Energy saving light bulbs use up to an eighth the energy and last up to ten times longer than traditional filament bulbs. As a result, just one energy saving bulb can pay for itself in a matter of months and save you £60 over the lifetime of the bulb. If you're wondering what impact you can make, consider this – one bulb can save up to 2000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.

Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows, and ensure that draughts around door and window frames and through floorboards and skirting boards have been plugged. Draught-proofing your home can make a huge impact on how much heat, CO2 and money leak out through those tiny gaps. In a typical home, an astonishing 20% of heat loss is through draughts.

Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat shouldn't need to be set higher than 60°C/140°F, and if you fit a thicker, 75mm insulation jacket, your savings will really add up.

Don't leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave appliances on charge unnecessarily.

Shower instead of bathe, don’t leave the tap on while brushing your teeth, fit aerating taps and shower heads, and collect rainwater for watering the garden to reduce the amount of water you use.

Switching to green electricity is easy and free. Green energy is generally defined as electricity derived from renewable or clean resources. The majority of electricity supplied to the National Grid is currently produced by burning non-renewable fossil fuels such as coal (the mainstay of the UK‘s power generation and by far the worst polluter), natural gas and petroleum. Green energy plans differ from supplier to supplier with most offering one or more of the following options:

Energy match: The supplier will match all, or part, of your electricity unit consumption with an equivalent amount of green energy, supplied directly into the National Grid.

Green fund: The supplier will invest in research and development into renewable energy projects, or into the construction of renewable energy sources, such as wind farms.

Carbon offset: The supplier will offset your household’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by planting trees or investing in other CO2-reducing projects in the UK or developing countries.

The big six energy suppliers have introduced green tariffs, and new companies such as Ecotricity and Good Energy have been set up specifically to help combat climate change. Visit www.uswitch.com today to compare your options and make the change.