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An energy-efficient CFL light bulb uses 75% less energy than a traditional incandescent light bulb and lasts up to 15 times longer. For every bulb you replace in your home, you cut your electricity bill and your CO2 emissions.

Only 5% of the energy used by a traditional incandescent light bulb is transformed into light. The rest vanishes into the atmosphere as heat.

Any light bulb dimmed by 25% will use roughly 20% less energy. Dimming one 75 watt incandescent bulb by 25% for only four hours a day will save you 13.6 kilos of CO2 over the course of a year.

Turn off the lights when you leave a room and turn off electrical appliances at the mains. Standby can use between 30% and 70% of the energy the appliance uses when it is on.

If every household in the USA replaced a burned-out light bulb with an energy-efficient bulb, it would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that from nearly 800,000 cars. It would also save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year.

A computer that is used for four hours a day and turned off the rest of the time costs about $70 less a year than one that is left on all day and all night. It also reduces the machine's CO2 emissions by 83%.

A standard kitchen accounts for 35% of your total energy use. You need only make small changes to save on your energy bill and reduce your CO2 emissions.

Boiling water in an electric kettle rather than a pot on the stove saves up to 50% of the electricity.

Only boil the water you need for your cup of tea. If everyone in the UK only boiled the water they needed, the energy saved could power more than 75% of the UK's streetlights.

It is much cheaper to roast in a pot than to roast in the oven. By using a pot, you consume up to 70% less energy.

Frozen food needs to be cooked much longer than thawed food. When you roast a frozen joint in the oven, you use up to 30% more electricity than when it is thawed.

If your pots and pans are not flat-bottomed, you use up to 50% more electricity to cook with them.

Use your ovens preheat and afterheat functions if you are preparing food in it for more than 30 minutes. Put the food in the oven as it is heating up and turn the oven off 5-10 minutes earlier than usual. This will save up to 25% of the energy.

Keep the temperature of your refrigerator at 5°C. Your food does not need a lower temperature and for every degree the temperature is lowered the energy consumption increases by 5%.

By thawing food in the refrigerator, it will keep the rest of the produce cold. The cold from a kilo of frozen meat is equal to the energy that your refrigerator uses in one hour.

The coils at the back of your fridge-freezer work better if they are kept at least 10cm from the wall and dust-free. Dust and grime clog them up and increase their energy use by up to 30%, so vacuum them about every three months.

Of household appliances, the refrigerator is the biggest consumer of electricity. Older refrigerators are typically 40% less efficient than new, energy efficient models.

Ceiling fans use 80% less energy than central air conditioners. By only using ceiling fans you can reduce your annual cooling costs by 10-65%.

In warm weather, run the ceiling fan blades counter-clockwise to feel 5°C cooler. In winter, set them to rotate clockwise at a low speed to force warm air from the ceiling down into the living space.

By using cold-water washing powder and washing your clothes at 20 or 30°C instead of 40 or 60°C, you save up to 60% of the power normally used.