Nesta commissioned Cambridge Architectural Research to model the savings that can be made through lesser known, free or low cost energy-saving measures.

Helping households reduce energy use in homes is a triple win: bringing down household bills, improving energy security, and reducing carbon emissions. With the Treasury now subsidising energy bills for millions of homes, saving energy now will help reduce the bill for taxpayers in the medium term.

Nesta commissioned Cambridge Architectural Research (CAR) to model the savings that can be made through lesser known, free or low cost measures, supported by an academic literature review by the Energy House Labs Team at the University of Salford. This report is a brief summary of a detailed spreadsheet, containing the data, modelling and assumptions, which we have published alongside this summary.

The modelling found that:

• Free measures can save a typical household with a combi boiler around £210 a year when adopted together.
• For a typical household with a system boiler, free measures can save around £100 a year.
• Particular free measures have high potential for impact if adopted at scale e.g. 38 per cent of UK homes could benefit from turning down a combi boiler's flow temperature to 60°C. Adopting this measure could save the UK £1 billion per year in energy costs.