The rising cost of living isn't missing anyone out as households across the UK desperately search for ways to cut back on costs.
As the price cap rose once again, families are trying to use less electricity across the board, with some appliances costing a fortune to run each month. As reported by The Express, in order to maximise the amount of money you save, it's best to know exactly what appliances cost the most money to run.
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That's what one dad from Essex found out, and he is sharing the smart way he figured out which household appliances were costing him too much money. David Miles, 46, bought a basic smart plug to delve deeper into which appliances were guzzling his money, and this is what he found out.
David initially went around his home, plugging the smart plug into each socket for each appliance, and monitored energy performance via an app on his smartphone. David said: "It tells me how much power each appliance is consuming at any given time and its average daily consumption.”
The app also lets David turn the appliance on or off when he wishes, even when he isn't in the home. The dad was shocked when he used the plug on his 25-year-old American-style fridge freezer.
David said: "Incredibly, it ate up a fifth of my entire electricity bill.” Over 12 months, the fridge used an astonishing 1,6000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power.
The dad added: "That’s the same as our friend's hot tub!" Today, each kWh of electricity costs 28 pence, according to regulator Ofgem.
That means that David's fridge costs him £448 a year to run alone. 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 52 pence per kWh, a rise of almost 86 per cent.
This would drive up David's fridge costs to a whopping £832 a year - and he is having none of it. An average new fridge freezer costs between £350 and £2000 - all dependent on the make and model - but David feels a new appliance is a solid investment.
David added: "It 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.”
And there's facts to back this up. According to Which?, American fridge freezers are the second most expensive household appliance to run. Research carried out on June 30 - when electricity was 28 pence per kWh - showed that condenser tumble dryers are the most expensive appliance to run.
They will cost the average household more than £262 a year from October. American-style fridge freezers the next biggest energy stealer, costing on average £223 a year to run from the autumn.
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