Save your money by insulating your boiler cylinder

If you have a hot-water cylinder for your boiler, it will stay hotter for longer if you insulate it, as heat loss can be reduced by up to an incredible 80%.

Fitting a new, 75mm cylinder jacket will save you around 35 per year, according to the Energy Saving Trust, but should cost less than a tenner.

Once you've got a cylinder jacket, remove it from the packaging and allow the insulation to fluff out. When the material has expanded, tie one of the jacket's straps around the cylinder (towards the top) and slide one panel underneath (ensuring it's the right way up) and up to the top of the cylinder.

Do this with all the panels and once they're roughly in place, thread the tops with the cord provided and tie in place around the hot-water pipe at the top. Ensure the panels are evenly positioned around the cylinder and then secure the other straps, but don't over tighten them.

Even if your cylinder is already insulated, you could save money by removing the existing jacket and fitting a new, thicker one - do this if the jacket is less than 75mm thick. If your cylinder is relatively new, it will have built-in insulation, but check with the retailer or manufacturer if you're not sure.

If your boiler has a cylinder, it probably has a cold-water tank, too, usually located in the loft. The loft floor should, of course, be insulated, but not the area under the tank because heat rising up from the house will help to stop the tank from freezing. That said, the tank itself should be insulated.

The easiest solution is to buy a tank jacket, available from DIY stores, which you just slot over the tank and secure in place. If your tank isn't a standard size, homemade solutions will do just as well. One option is to tie loft insulation around the tank with string and cover the top with a polystyrene sheet.

Alternatively, clad the whole tank in polystyrene sheets, again securing them in place with string. Make sure the sheets extend down to the floor, especially if the tank is raised, and cut out holes for the pipes with a craft knife.

Loft insulation is available in sheet form, so you could use that instead - many DIY stores stock pre-cut panels to fit the most popular tank sizes. Whatever you use, make sure you can get at the top of the tank easily in case of problems.