In 2019, Ofgem – the body that regulates energy suppliers in Great Britain – introduced an energy price cap due to rising concerns households were paying too much for gas and electricity. A similar cap was also implemented in Northern Ireland by the Utility Regulator.
The energy price cap limits the amount that a supplier can charge for their default tariff and this is currently reviewed every three months. However, the cap is on a single unit of energy (pence per kilowatt hours or p/kWh), not the customer’s overall bill, so the best way to save money is to cut back on energy usage. Click or scroll on to find out more...
As of January 2024, the energy regulator Ofgem set the new average capped rate on electricity as 29p per kWh, with a daily standing charge of 53p per day – the standing charge is the cost of connecting to the National Grid. The average capped gas rate is now 7p per kWh, plus a standing charge of 30p per day.
Although this is lower than at some points during the energy price hikes, it is still more than we were all paying before the energy crisis and is up by 5% on the previous quarter (1 October to 31 December 2023), which equates to an average annual rise of £94 per household.
Let's take a look at the 21 most expensive items to run in your home according to data from MoneySavingExpert (MSE), and explore how you can cut costs.
We live in an age where going without a mobile phone isn’t feasible, but it is possible to make your phone run more efficiently. According to MSE's data, it costs 0.15p per hour to run a phone charger. Belkin’s tech expert, Mark Robinson, says you should try to charge your phone before it runs out – when it drops to around 20% – and the best time to do so is in the evenings when electricity is often charged at a lower rate. Power banks are a good way of boosting phones during the day.
A typical lightbulb (10W) will cost you 0.29p per hour to run. Though they are more expensive at the point of purchase, LED bulbs use about half the energy of their fluorescent counterparts and the Energy Saving Trust says making the switch could save you up to £55 per year. It also sensibly advises turning lights off any time you are not in a room, which could potentially save households £25 per year (£19 in Northern Ireland).
With more of us working from home today and our lives ever-more intrinsically linked to the online world, internet connection is crucial, but you may not realise how much energy your little BT Hub box is guzzling, taking the number 19 spot of the most expensive appliances in our home. Though turning the router off throughout the day will not make you popular with other household members, some estimates, such as this one from Sust-it, have calculated that it could cost you around £9.24 per year to run.
Fridges are fairly far down our list when you consider that they need to be on all the time, but rising costs could soon stack up, especially when they cost around 0.81p an hour to run. For many of us, our fridge is now connected to our freezer and though models have become increasingly efficient over the years, they can still cost up to £183 to run each year, according to Which?. Advice to minimise costs includes making sure the door is not left open, allowing leftovers to cool before placing them inside the fridge, cleaning the coils and defrosting your freezer regularly.
Don't worry, no one is suggesting you give up TV – how else are we expected to get through winter? However, it's worth noting that the bigger the TV you own, the more it will cost to run and you will now pay more than you did last year. The MSE figures reveal that the average TV will cost around 0.87p per hour to power this winter and Which? estimates that those with the largest TVs could expect to pay up to £65 per year for the privilege.
The more our penchant for box sets and TV add-ons grows, the more expensive it becomes to run our TVs. The Sky Q Box, as well as other similar set-top boxes and accessories, like BT Hub, may bring joy to autumn and winter evenings, but they also use up energy, even when on standby. Average running costs for a Sky Q box are around 1p per hour while in use, or 0.26p while on standby. That is unless you do your research and trawl through your settings to find the ‘eco mode’, which effectively puts it into a deep sleep each night.
As many of us vow to refrain from putting our heating on, working in the day wearing jumpers and slippers, and drinking copious cups of tea, thoughts may turn to the old faithful, the electric blanket. MSE estimates the average electric blanket costs 3p per hour – not an insignificant cost. Getting a blanket with a timer so it turns off after a set time, such as this gorgeous mustard one, is one way of limiting the running costs.
There’s never been a more compelling reason to get the kids off their consoles – as one of the top 20 most expensive appliances in our home, you now have a legitimate reason to tell them enough is enough. Though compared with some household items the cost is fairly small on standby – just 0.01p per hour – when running they can cost 6p an hour and as any parent will tell you, those hours soon stack up.
As the nights close in, the thought of sticking on a nice stew or a slow-cooked leg of lamb in the morning so it’s ready for you after work may appeal, and while they’re not cheap, they do cost less than cooking in an oven. A slow cooker used for eight hours costs around 56p (7p per hour), so it's a thrifty alternative to oven cooking.
If you’re worried about the cost of running a tumble dryer (spoiler alert: you probably should!) then you may be tempted to opt for a heated air dryer, much like a clothes horse, except you plug it in. These are not without their costs, but Aldi’s one, which sold out in hours, costs just 6p an hour to run.
According to MSE, your washing machine will cost 20p per hour to run this winter. Which? also estimates that the average annual washing machine running cost now stands at around £68. This figure is based on the assumption that the washing machine is used four times a week, so yes, if you have kids, you’ll need to scale that up massively. Which? advises making sure your machine is at around 80% capacity before putting it on and switching to a cooler wash for clothes that aren't stained.
Though you can pick up an air fryer quite cheaply, before you invest in the hope of drastically reducing your energy bills, remember that it will still incur some running costs. The good news is that though a cost of 29p per hour sounds like a lot, air fryers cook quickly, so you can expect to pay between 10p and 20p per meal – depending on the size of your air fryer.
As if we ever needed an excuse to put the iron away, coming in quite high on our list, that pesky ironing could be costing you. MSE puts the cost of ironing at around 32p per hour, and if your ironing pile is anything like ours, that could prove rather expensive.
Although it seems high on our list, it would take you quite a few toast-making sessions to use 35p of energy per hour. You can reduce the cost even more by switching your toaster off at the socket, and though some toasters bill themselves as being more energy efficient, if your toaster still toasts bread, there’s no need to switch just yet.
Though it appears to be one of our most expensive appliances, Money Saving Expert still says that if you can use your microwave to cook dinner instead of the oven, then do. Microwaves use less energy than ovens because they only heat the food, not the air around it. For example, if you cook a jacket potato in a microwave rather than an oven, MSE calculates you will use just a quarter of the energy. However, when not in use, it should be switched off at the socket, as even on standby it uses an average of 0.20p per hour.
Your dishwasher could cost you an average of 35p per hour to run this winter. According to Which? the annual cost of running an average full-sized dishwasher is around £81. However, this estimation is based on running the dishwasher just five times a week – what do they do on weekends? So if there are more than two of you in your house, the costs could be a lot more. Just make sure your dishwasher is fully stacked before running and remember, the eco setting is your best friend.
We would love to tell you that you can hang up your vacuum cleaner and forgo your cleaning routine, and for 41p per hour, perhaps you should. However, there are ways to make them more efficient. Many modern vacuums will have an eco mode worth using. You should always make sure you use the right nozzle, and also maintain it and clean it out properly. You could also switch to only using brooms or mops on hard floors.
Electric hobs cost an average of 49p per hour to run according to MSE, with induction hobs generally considered the most energy efficient. Mike Norton, Director of Store Operations at Magnet Trade says: ‘’Induction cooktops are one of the most energy-efficient kitchen appliances because excessive heat isn’t lost in the transferring process. Up to 90% of the energy used is transferred to the food, compared to the 74% for electric cooktops and 40% for gas." However, while an electric cooker uses fewer units of energy than a gas model, electricity generally costs more than gas, so you'll likely end up paying more.
With a reluctance to turn the heating on, you may find you’re drinking more cups of tea and coffee than normal. MSE puts the cost of running your kettle at 52p per hour. They advise you to simply consider how much water you are putting in – boiling too much water for your needs could cost you in the region of £16 per year. That's six Starbucks flat whites!
The second-most expensive appliance to run in your home at 58p per hour, your oven is also one of its most used. But Which? says there are ways of reducing energy costs, such as bulk cooking and defrosting food in the traditional way (on a counter or in the fridge) so your oven doesn't have to work so hard.
And there we have it: the tumble-dryer is the biggest energy-guzzling appliance in your home, costing 87p per hour to run. While the days of our clothes being dried in what seemed like minutes this summer are over, you could still make the most of blustery days to dry clothes or use a clothes horse – though keep the window open for ventilation. If you do need to use the tumble dryer, make sure the lint is cleaned after every use to keep it running efficiently.
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