With the winter months fast approaching, households are desperately trying to reduce their energy bills as prices continue to skyrocket.
The cost of living crisis has encouraged many people to review their energy usage and cut back on appliances they may not need to use that add hundreds of euros to their bills.
According to British Gas, up to 23 per cent of energy use of homes in the UK could come from vampire appliances.
This means that with the average energy bill costing households around €2,850 a year, you could be spending a whopping €655 on vampire appliances.
Here's what vampire appliances are and which ones could be costing you the most.
What are vampire appliances?
Vampire appliances are devices left on standby that continue to use energy even when they are not being used.
These types of appliances are also known as remote-ready appliances, which remain on standby, ready to receive orders to switch on.
Vampire appliances often have a standby or sleep mode or require one button to wake them up.
Even though they may not be in use, devices in standby mode still use an electric current when plugged in as they continue to update, record data and connect to remote servers.
Common vampire appliances include microwaves, game consoles, TVs and satellite and cable boxes.
What are the worst vampire appliances, and how much do they cost?
The five worst vampire appliances and their costs according to the average annual energy bill are as follows.
- Hi-Fi system on standby - costing €162.40 a year
- Sky box on standby - costing €162.40 a year
- Laptop charger not in use - costing €131.06 a year
- TV on standby - costing €22.22 a year
- Printer on standby - costing €22.22 a year
The easiest way to stop your vampire appliances from using energy is to avoid using standby mode where possible.
Instead, you should remember to unplug your appliances or switch them off at the mains.
For laptop chargers and other chargers, you can save energy by ensuring you don't leave them plugged into your device once it has finished charging.
It can be handy to use extension leads for your devices as this means you can switch off lots of vampire appliances at the mains at once rather than having to turn them off individually.
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