Yes, insulation is king.  You can also save on your bills by insulating what's called the Primary Pipework - that's the pipes that carry the very hot water from your boiler to your hot water tank, and back. Because the water inside these pipes is much hotter than in the hot water pipes to your taps, more heat is lost from them per metre of length - it's the temperature difference that determines how much heat is lost.

You can see the primary pipework entering and leaving your hot water tank and it's usually quite obvious which ones they are, as they are the hotest of all the pipes in your airing cupboard.  You can get pre-formed and split cylindrical lagging very easily now in the DIY sheds and it's not too difficult to fit - it's easy to cut to length and you just snap it on.  If you can, you should insulate the whole length of these very hot pipes inside your airing cupboard.

While on the subject of pipe lagging, don't forget that you also need to insulate cold water pipes to prevent them freezing in the winter.  Many older homes have pipe runs on outside walls where they are exposed to the cold outside. 

Often, these runs are on the corner of two outside walls, where they will become extremely cold at night when your central heating is off.  Combine this with the temperatures we achieved last winter, down to 14 degrees below zero on some nights, and you have a recipe for a frozen pipe - and when this thaws, what you get is a leak that may cause damage, and is almost always costly to fix.

It's worth remembering that any insurance against leaks may include a clause that says it won't pay up for bursts that occur to unlagged pipes.  So check your insurance before the winter comes, and get the insulation done if you need to, especially if you are going to be away from home for a longish period during the cold weather. 

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It always amazes me that people don't lag their pipes properly; an investments of less than £10 saves about 20% to 30% of the energy used by the system

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