Catch the Appliance That Consumes Power Most!

In February 2022, the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) announced that the domestic energy price will be increased by 54% from April. It is an incredible boost in history. Before this, the average British household’s annual electricity bill was about 1,277 to 1,370 pounds. The electricity bill will increase by about 700 pounds in the next year for every household approximately. It is estimated 

that 22 million households across the country will be affected. Here, FutureCo helps you to find out which are the biggest users of electricity in the home and offers some tips on how to use them as efficiently as possible to help you reduce your energy bill.   

Natalia Lachi, an expert at Discount Code which is a British money-saving website, pointed out that even if TVs, refrigerators, and mobile phones are in standby mode, they continue to consume electricity if the plugs are not pulled out. In particular, TVs are the number one power-consuming appliance. And your electricity bills will skyrocket to £132.86 just in one year!  

Lachi said that according to the electricity consumption habits of British households, the TV is the number one power consumption. As many as 98% of people are used to leaving the TV in standby mode, which will increase the annual electricity bill by at least 132.86 pounds. Some people even like to equip it with a video game console, the power consumption will increase more under the playing status. However, it is believed that the electricity bill can save about 4.2 pounds per day if it is indeed turned off.  

Furthermore, refrigerators, kettles and mobile phone chargers also consume a lot of power invisibly. According to Larch, a refrigerator or freezer costs £114.24 a year for electricity and a kettle can add £30.66 a year to your bill. Even leaving phone chargers plugged in after being used can add £20 a year to your electricity bill.  

Lachi suggested that we should develop the habit of unplugging the plug after using it. As for refrigerators that need to use electricity all the time, accumulating too much dust and storing too much food inside definitely will increase the power consumption of the refrigerator. This can be solved by cleaning at a regular frequency to maintain appliance working efficiency. Japanese home appliance company, Panasonic, once conducted a test about the power saving of refrigerators. When the outside temperature of the refrigerator is 25 degrees and it is running stably, the food in the refrigerated area of the refrigerator is advised to be filled at 70%! The reason for this is because 70% of food can avoid the poor circulation of cold air in the refrigerator and the refrigerator does not need to spend more effort to cool down, resulting in a waste of electricity. Therefore, rather than filling the refrigerator at home, it is better to fill it only 70% full, which can save about 10% of electricity. However, the usage rule of the freezer is different from the refrigerated area. Panasonic recommends a surprising method of saving more electricity that the food in the freezer can be stuffed without blocking the freezer air 

vent. It turns out that the frozen ingredients are like cooling agents, and all of them are like a big ice cube in the freezer. This can help each other freeze, and at the same time reduce the burden of the freezer, thereby achieving the effect of power saving. If you implement the above actions perfectly, the electricity bills may drop significantly!  

Then how about other household appliances’ power consumption?   

Wet appliances 

Wet appliances include washing machines, dishwashers and tumble dryers that account for 14% of a typical energy bill, taking the top spot in the power-consumption list. The power used to heat the water that they use soars the consumption and makes them energy hungry home appliances.  

To down the using power of wet appliances, you can actively choose to wash clothes at a lower temperature and try to avoid washing half loads to save water at the same time. The same advice also can be applied to the dishwasher: use the Eco setting if it has one and try to wait until it’s full to set it off.  

Lighting 

Lighting may be one of the appliances that you seldom notice about the power consumption. This type of device takes up around 5% of an average home’s total energy bill. In the UK, the winter daylight hours are shorter than in summer. In summer, daylight can still be used until 9 or 10 pm, but in winter, sunset starts at 3 pm, which leads to an increase in electricity consumption!  To reduce the amount of energy, you can replace halogen bulbs with LEDs when purchasing.  

There is a wide range of LEDs shades from cool to warm, allowing you to create the lighting effect that you want for your home. If the average household replaced all bulbs with LEDs, it would save around £55 a year on bills. Another tip about saving the power of light is that you turn the lights off when you are not using them or when you leave the room. This will save you around £20 a year on your annual energy bills.  

Cooking 

The last category is cooking. Are your cooking habits costing you too much in your energy bills? It is said that around 4% of the energy bill is spent on powering kitchen appliances, including the oven, kettle and microwave.  

For cooking, microwaves are more efficient than ovens, as they only heat the food and not the air space inside. And while using the kettle, try to avoid overfilling it, this tiny action helps save yourself £11 a year on the electricity bill.  

As the awareness of eco-friendly has arisen around all of us, many home appliance brands are also launching products with eco-friendly features. Buying environmentally friendly appliances can not only reduce your electricity bill but also protect the earth. Let us create a sustainable living environment for the next generation while using home appliances to make our life more convenient.