1. Consider some SERIOUS insulation. Consider what savings would be made over the lifetime of the building. Wall insulation is important. Internal insulation can be done room by room by various methods. External wall insulation may be an option... yes its expensive, but could be money very well spent.

2. Insulate all pipework where appropriate (unheated areas) . Don't neglect your boiler room. There is no reason for a boiler-room to be hot. There are many thousands of miles of pipe in the UK losing heat to areas that don't need heating.

3. If you have thermostatic radiator valves, adjust them carefully and properly. They are actually quite accurate, but sometimes appear to be fickle since they tend to operate in 'bursts' (this is not unusual). If you set them carefully to say number 2, you will find the room is kept at a constant low-ish temperature. Don't be surprised if the radiator seems cold on some occasions, and very hot on others. This is normal. Resist the temptation to feel the radiator's temperature before you adjust it.

4. Improve your control system, this can save a lot of energy. Fit easy to use time clocks and thermostats.

5. If you have to run your hot tap for a considerable time before it becomes hot, then there may be scope for saving heat and water. If you have a large-bore hot feed pipe, consider if you can either reduce the diameter, or take multiple smaller-bore pipe directly to single taps. For example, your kitchen tap, which is usually the most frequently used. Insulate these pipes. Hand basins could have small-bore feed pipes coming from a distribution manifold near the cylinder/boiler. (see DHW page)

6. Make sure that your heating system is properly serviced.

7. Replace your central heating circulation pump with the new Grundfos Alpha2 or Wilo Stratus ECO ('A' rated energy label). This could reduce your electricity consumption significantly. Note the standard alpha is a variable speed pump which has advantages over standard pumps. The Alpha2 ('A' rated) has a DC motor and consumes between only 10 and 35 watts! Many old-design pumps consume 100 watts!
These pumps are available in the UK, but you might need to press your plumber to use one. These pumps should be as common as the low-energy light bulb!
http://www.grundfos.com/web/homeUK.nsf/Webopslag/DMAR-6EGDHG
Note:- also see Grundfos Direct Sensors for new technology, low cost heat metering. You can then tell exactly how much heat is being produced.

8. Try to get better heating controls. Most are tedious to set and difficult to review the settings. We should really be able to get good, very easy to set, touch-screen controls in this modern age, but these seem to be unavailable.
http://www.heatmiser.co.uk/ are getting close.
Control your heating from a PC over the internet using something like the heatmiser advanced system. Its ideal for large properties where ease of control of individual rooms is paramount

9. Fit a whole-house electricity monitor. It will probably surprise you how much electricity is wasted at certain times.
Note, most of these products actually measure the current. They are accurate for normal electric heaters, but there will be a considerable error when used with electric motors. e.g. heat pumps. They can be checked or calibrated by running the heat pump whilst counting revs or pulses of your electric meter over a time period. (use a stop-watch) . Electric meters give 'revs/kWh', or 'pulses/kW'. This is printed on your electricity supply meter. Your actual consumption in kW can be calculated from this.

10. Turn off unwanted lights (sorry, I was trying not to be a nag).

11. If you have storage heaters then try to adjust them depending on outside temperatures. Try to get an automatic control with outside sensor to do this for you.

14. Resist the temptation of a high-flow power shower. Consider if a standard one is good enough.

15. Look for energy waste. No rooms should be hotter than they need to be. Improve your heating controls if necessary.

Heat Pumps (See also controller settings page)

16. Keep the 'heating curve' setting (if you have one) as low as possible. (this is the weather-compensation setting).

17. If you don't have weather-compensation, adjust the temperature of the unit to the lowest temperature that will give you sufficient heating. Adjustments can be made periodically as the seasons change.

18. Make sure that nothing is restricting the water flow through the heat pump. High flow-rates are desirable.

19. It may be better to keep several room thermosats high, and control the heat down by adjusting the main temperature control on the heat pump.

20. If the heat pump runs for only short periods. Look into the cause. Longer run-times are better. If you have a time clock, set it for longer run-periods, but keep the water to the radiators at a low temperature (adjust on heat pump controller).

21. Make sure that all controls are adjusted correctly.

22. If a back-up electric heater is fitted, make sure that it is not contributing more than it should. Consider turning it off if it's not too cold.(although it should only come on in very cold weather). A large red lamp to indicate that it is running may alert you to its excessive use.
Be mindful that electric heaters are sometimes used for legionella protection of the hot water cylinder so this should not be turned off.

23. If you have radiators, add a few more, especially in areas where you would like a little more heat. The more radiators the better, you can then turn the water temperature down a little and save some energy.

Underfloor heating.

24. If you have a heat pump, then it is better to keep zones on for long periods with low water temperature. Rather than warmer water 'cycling' on and off.

25. The system should be designed such that the minimum pumping power is required. Pipe diameters should be adequate etc.

26. At least one manifold flow adjuster should be fully open. Do not waste pumping power by throttling down flow-restrictors unnecessarily. Review the speed control on your pump. You may, or may not need the maximum speed. Reducint the pump speed is sometimes false economy, it depends on the situation.

27. Use plenty of insulation below the floor. It is surprising the percentage that can be lost through the floor.

Cooling

28. Before you resort to air conditioning, undertake some good housekeeping;- fit blinds to all windows on the sunny side. Shading from the sun will save you a vast amount of energy.

29. Keep the cold in by keeping doors closed as much as possible when the air is hot outside (this habit can be difficult to adopt.)

30. Try a ceiling fan. This simple technology only uses a small amount of electricity.

31. If you must have air-conditioning, minimise its use by adjusting the thermostat to the highest acceptable comfort level.

32. Minimise any unwanted incident heat gains from anything that uses power, and ventilate as appropriate.

33. Avoid sunny areas for the outside unit of your air-conditioner. Ensure that it gets plenty of fresh air such that it does not re-circulate around itself. Keep the heat-exchanger clean.