Families all over the UK are desperately trying to cut down on their energy bills. With the new price cap of £3,549 a year set to come into force on October 1, it can be handy to know exactly which appliances in your household are using up the most money, so it's easier to cut down.
One father discovered one device in his home was contributing to a massive part of his bills, after using a smart meter to track his energy usage. 46-year-old David Miles, from Essex, recently went around his home plugging in different appliances and monitoring their energy performance via an app, the Mirror reports.
“It tells me how much power each appliance is consuming at any given time and its average daily consumption," he told Express.co.uk.
The clever app also lets him turn off any appliance when he's not in the house, using his phone. When he plugged in his large 25-year-old American-style fridge-freezer, he was shocked to find how much energy it consumed. “Incredibly, it ate up a fifth of my entire electricity bill," he said.
The fridge-freezer was using up a massive 1,600 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power over the course of a year, which according to David, was "the same as our friend's hot tub". According to regulator Ofgem, each kWh of electricity costs 28p - so at the moment, David's fridge is costing him £448 a year to run.
From October, when the energy price cap jumps from £1,971 a year to £3,549 a year for the average home, electricity will jump to 52p per kWh, a rise of almost 86 per cent. This will drive up the cost of using his American fridge freezer to a staggering £832 a year, and David is taking action.
Typically a new fridge-freezer can cost between £350 and £2,000, but David is considering buying one as an investment. A brand new fridge freezer likely will use a maximum of 400 kWh of electricity each year, which will cost him £208 a year when prices jump.
He said: "That will save me at least £624 a year, so upgrading my fridge freezer will pay for itself in two or three years, plus I will also slash my home's carbon footprint."
David isn't the only one affected by having this energy-sucking appliance in his home. Research from consumer champion Which? showed that American fridge freezers are the second most expensive household appliance to run.
The research was carried out on June 30, when electricity cost 28p per kWh, but the numbers have been updated to reflect October’s 52p per kWh charge. David, who lives with wife Jane, 48, and daughter Enfys, 17, and Alfie, 14, is preparing himself for October’s energy price rise, when he expects to spend £430 a month on electricity alone - with gas bills extra.
He's taking further steps to cut down on his bills, such as upgrading his gas boiler which he reckons will cost £4,000 but cut his gas bills by 20 per cent. He added: "We could get our money back in four or five years."
David, whose company The PPC Machine helps mortgage brokers and financial advisers find leads, says his toughest job is to make his children aware of the need to save energy. He joked: "I'm teaching them that light switches can turn off as well as on."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here .
