The energy-saving kit that actually pays for itself

Everything here is under about £40 and saves money in the same winter you buy it. No heat pumps, no solar, no boilers — those are worth doing but they are a different conversation and a different budget. This is the cheap end, where the payback is fastest.

If you want the numbers behind any of it, the appliance running costs pages show what each thing costs to run, and the guides explain the maths.

Stop paying to heat the outside

Draughts are the cheapest fix in any home and the one most people never get round to. None of this needs a trade, and most of it goes in on a Saturday morning.

Draught excluders ↗£8-15
For the bottom of external doors and any door to an unheated room.
The gap under a front door is often the single biggest hole in a warm room.
Radiator reflector foil ↗£10-20
Goes behind radiators on external walls and bounces heat back inside.
Only worth it on external walls. On internal walls it does nothing.
Draught seal tape ↗£6-12
For rattling window frames and letterboxes.
Cheapest item here and usually the most noticeable in an older flat.
Thermal curtain linings ↗£20-40
Closed at dusk, they cut what a single-glazed window loses overnight.
Most effective in rooms you sit in during the evening.

Find out what is actually costing you

Every figure on this site is an estimate until you measure your own home. These are the tools that turn a guess into a number.

Plug-in energy monitor ↗£12-20
Sits between the socket and the appliance and reads the real watts.
The honest way to settle an argument about the tumble dryer or the gaming PC.
Smart plugs with monitoring ↗£10-25
Same measurement, plus a schedule and a remote off switch.
Useful on anything that quietly runs all day.
Infrared thermometer ↗£15-30
Point it at walls and frames to find the cold spots.
Shows you where the draught proofing above should actually go.

Heat the person, not the house

Warming one person costs a fraction of warming a whole room. This is the tactic that saves the most for the least, especially if you are home during the day.

Heated throw ↗£25-40
Roughly 100W - about a tenth of a small electric heater.
Cheaper per hour to run than almost anything else that makes heat.
Electric underblanket ↗£25-40
Warms the bed before you get in, so the heating does not have to.
Lets you drop the overnight thermostat without noticing it.
Heated airer with cover ↗£30-60
Around 300W, and no vent needed.
The alternative to the most expensive plug-in appliance most homes own.

Water, quietly

Hot water is the second biggest energy bill in most homes after space heating, and the fixes are small.

Water-saving shower head ↗£12-25
Less hot water per minute, same shower.
Pays back fastest in a household of four all showering daily.
Cylinder jacket ↗£15-25
For an older uninsulated hot water tank in an airing cupboard.
Only relevant if you have a tank, but pays for itself very quickly if you do.
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Not on this page on purpose: anything that needs an installer, and anything that costs more than it saves in a year. If a thing only pays back over a decade it belongs in the guides, not in a shopping list.