These living room changes can save money on your energy bills

From smart thermostats to lighting – discover the habit changes that can cut energy waste

Installing a smart thermostat can allow you to control your heating more precisely and schedule it around your daily routines. (Tado )

SPONSORED BY OCTOPUS ENERGY

The Independent Home Channel is powered by Octopus Energy.

From cosy evenings spent relaxing to socialising with friends and family, living rooms are often the heart of a home. But, your lounge is also one of the hungriest rooms when it comes to energy. Between TVs, games consoles, lamps, and heating, bills can quickly creep up.

The good news is that making the areas you spend most time in more energy smart doesn’t mean splashing out on expensive gadgets or overhauling your home. A few smart habits – and even smarter tech – can make a surprisingly big difference to your bills, without compromising on comfort.

How do smart home devices improve energy efficiency?

Being energy smart is about identifying what’s wasting energy and finding ways to save it, and there is now a range of devices that make this easier than ever. What’s more, smart home devices are quick to install without breaking the bank. These include smart plugs that stop TVs from draining power while on standby, smart lighting that switches off when you leave the room, smart thermostats that adapt to your routine, and smart radiator valves you can control from your phone.

Add in smart meters and providers like Octopus Energy, helping households see exactly how and when energy is being used, and it becomes much easier to pinpoint where savings can be made.

How can I improve my home's energy efficiency with simple changes?

Invest in smart thermostats and smart radiator valves

While smart heating systems have become more technologically advanced in recent years, you don’t need to replace your entire heating system to gain more control over your home’s warmth.

For around £120-£280, a smart thermostat can be added to most existing heating systems. Popular options such as the Octopus Energy-approved tado° smart thermostat give you remote control via an app and use intelligent scheduling to learn your daily routines, alerting you when you’re away – so you can turn the heating down and warm things back up when you return. It can even flag to you when windows are open and when heat is being lost. Beyond saving energy, smart thermostats help you identify ways to reduce your bills without ever touching the boiler.

Pair a smart thermostat with smart radiator valves, which fit onto most standard radiators, and you can then control the heat in each room individually. Costing around £40-£80 each, they help you ensure you’re only warming the spaces you’re actually using.

Homes with an Octopus Cosy Heat Pump take this even further. Unlike a traditional boiler, a heat pump doesn’t generate heat from scratch. Instead, it extracts warmth from the air outside and transfers it inside, even in cold weather. Much more energy efficient, a heat pump helps reduce both your energy bills and carbon emissions. Pairing it with smart controls means the heat pump only works when and where you need it, keeping your living room cosy without wasting energy.

Small changes that make a big difference

Add smart lighting

Swapping old lightbulbs for more economical LEDs is one of the easiest ways to cut electricity, using up to 90 per cent less energy. Or go a step further by choosing smart LED lights, which automatically adjust to the light in the room –brightening when it’s dark and dimming when there’s plenty of daylight and helping you save energy without having to think about it. Investing in lights you can schedule to switch off at certain times, or those with motion sensors in spaces like hallways or utility rooms, also prevents your lights from being left on unnecessarily.

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Most smart lights come with their own app or integrate seamlessly with voice assistants such as Google Home, Alexa or Apple HomeKit, making it easy to control them from the comfort of your sofa. This can be especially useful in open-plan spaces. By grouping lights into zones, you can light only the areas you’re actually using, rather than illuminating the entire room.

Smart lighting also works hand-in-hand with Octopus Energy’s smart tariffs. By shifting energy use away from peak times, you can save money – for example, by scheduling non-essential lighting, such as outdoor lights, to stay off during the most expensive periods.

How to conserve energy in the living room

Tackle ‘vampire energy’

Your living room isn’t just full of lights; it’s packed with hidden energy guzzlers, too. TVs, consoles, soundbars and laptops are draining power in standby mode. This is known as ‘vampire energy’ and it can quietly add up over time. In fact, the Energy Saving Trust estimates that by unplugging devices, you could save up to £45 a year in the UK.

Fortunately, there’s a simple fix. Smart plugs, which cost from under £10, can automatically cut power to devices when they’re not in use. Like smart lights, they can be added to automated routines or controlled via voice assistants, so you don’t even have to think about it.

Create a smart routine

Smart routines are essentially a to-do list for your home, allowing lights, heating, plugs and entertainment systems to work together, switching on or off automatically at the right times.

For example, you can set a ‘leaving home’ routine so that lights, heating, TVs or consoles power off when you head out. Or an ‘evening’ routine might dim the lights, adjust the thermostat, and switch off unused devices, keeping your living room cosy without wasting energy.

Setting one up is straightforward. Choose a voice assistant such as Google Home, Alexa or Apple HomeKit, pick the devices you want to control and decide what you want them to do. Once set, these routines quietly chug away in the background, taking care of the little details.

Monitor your energy

With energy costs rising, knowledge is power, and one of the easiest ways to save energy is to find out how much you’re using and on what, so you can then change the way you behave. Real-time data lets you spot spikes from individual devices, like a gaming console or an old fridge quietly siphoning power.

Tools like the Octopus Energy app give you detailed breakdowns of how much you’re spending and let you schedule heating and appliances around off-peak periods. Combine it with an Octopus Home Mini, which gives you near-instant insights, showing live energy data for your whole home.