The seven appliances you need to turn off NOW – they’re adding hundreds of pounds a year to your energy bill

SWITCHING off a number of appliances around the house can be the simplest way to slash your energy bill.

Many of us leave things plugged into the walls or with the red standby light still glaring away even after we’ve powered it down.

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But doing so could be taking its toll on your finances without you realising.

Electronics that remain plugged in when not being used are described as phantom loads.

Even though you may not be specifically using the appliance itself, as it’s still plugged in it will continue to pull electricity and waste a whole lot of money as a result.

Brits are already forking out up to a quarter more than usual on their energy bills, so many are scrambling to cut down costs any way they can.

Will Owen, energy expert at Uswitch said: “See if there are any appliances you can switch off when they are not in use.

“The Energy Saving Trust estimates you can save around £35 a year by remembering to turn your appliances off properly, and not leaving them in standby mode.” 

There are a number of things you can do room by room in your home to lower costs too, but especially as you vacate a space in your house, make sure everything’s turned off.

Others also advise you to use appliances when electricity rates are lowest, in an effort to save on costs.

You can contact your energy company to find out when peak and off-peak hours are scheduled and use your appliances when there’s less demand – it’ll be cheaper at that point.

But these are the top things to make sure are completely off, if you want to shave off a few pennies from your energy bill.

Chargers

Most people will leave things like their mobile phones plugged in to charge all night long, but this isn’t going to make them most energy efficient.

You should really unplug a charger from the wall once your device reaches 100%. However, according to Uswitch, an iPhone only costs £5 a year if you charge it once a day.

An iPhone 12 uses a 20 watt charger and takes two hours and 27 minutes to get to full battery, so you could save on hours of wasted energy usage if you unplug it after this time despite the low running costs.

TVs and computers

Your telly and computer could be sucking electricity out of the mains even after you’ve finished using them.

Leaving appliances on standby will usually mean the monitor is off, but a glowing red light is a dead giveaway that it’s still using your power, and hiking up your bills in the process.

Every time you finish using your electricals, and especially at night, you should make sure you switch off devices like TVs and computers at the mains rather than switching to standby.

You can also buy appliances that have low standby power usage in the first place, and this will help keep costs down compared to regular products, especially if you do forget to switch them off entirely.

Lights

The lights are on but nobody’s home, and your energy bill is sky rocketing.

Make sure you turn off lights every time you leave a room otherwise you could be wasting energy.

If you don’t necessarily need as much bright light you can install energy-saving light bulbs too, which could cut £180 in a lifetime from your energy bills compared to older style bulbs.

Mr Owen also said: “You should also check if your bulbs are LEDs rather than less energy efficient ones, such as halogens.

“Every 50-watt halogen bulb that is swapped for an LED alternative saves households £3 a year. It may not seem like much, but it all adds up over every light in your home.”

Having lights on a dimmer switch will also reduce your bills, which means you can still have a bit of light in the room without draining your bank account in the process.

Heating

If you can avoid turning on the heating at certain points in the day then you’ll save on your energy bills.

Michael Reading from Housetastic said: “Set a timer early in the morning so your home is nice and warm as you get ready for the day, and perhaps set a timer in the early evening, but generally the heating does not need to be on
all day.”

You could also use a smart home system to allow you to only heat the rooms that are in use, rather than the full house to stop you wasting energy you don’t need.

It means you can turn off the heating where you won’t feel the benefit and save some extra pounds on your bill.

You should also check what temperature you set it to as Michael also said: “It is estimated that turning the thermostat down by just one degree can save up to 10% on a fuel bill, not to mention the amount of energy.”

Dripping taps

Leaving a tap to drip away will mean your money goes down the drain along with the wasted water.

A hot water tap left dripping could add as much as £490 onto your gas bill according to TapWarehouse.

Taps that constantly trickle can use over 450 litres a day, or a massive 175,000 litres of water in a year, so make sure they are tightly turned off if you want to avoid the excess waste and drain on your bills.

Dishwasher

You should turn off the heated drying system on your dishwasher.

A little-known feature in your dishwasher means it will heat the air it produces to dry the dishes during the cycle.

Of course, you could leave your crockery to air dry for free instead, so make sure the setting is turned off to save on its energy usage.

It costs between £37 and £48 a year to run a standard size dishwasher but opting for a more energy efficient one will lower your costs by £11.

Air conditioning

Now it may seem like an absurd suggestion when the weather is getting nippier anyway, but you should turn your air conditioning off if you use it, as there are cheaper alternatives.

If you are struggling with it being too hot in your home then you may still want cool air to filter through.

But turn off the AC and use fans instead.

Fans pull far less electricity than AC systems – Octopus energy previously told The Sun that it would cost roughly 9p to run a fan for eight hours.

In comparison a typical air conditioner costs around 44p per hour to run, according to research by Uswitch, so it would add £3.52 to your energy bills for the same length of time.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk