State pensioners are being warned over five devices they should switch off and unplug as another energy bills price hike looms in just two weeks time.
Many state pensioners are facing a tougher winter this year after losing their £300 winter fuel payment and a £300 cost of living payment as well as rising energy bills.
And on January 1, just two weeks away, pensioners will see their energy bills rise by another 1.2 percent on average, as Ofgem puts prices up for the third time in a row.
It follows a hefty 10 percent price rise in October, meaning pensioners – and other energy users – face significantly increased bills this winter.
And it comes at a time when the Winter Fuel Payment will be issued only to those on qualifying benefits, so most will not get it.
That’s why state pensioners are being urged to do whatever they can to reduce their usage and help drop their energy bills as low as they can before the next price hike takes effect.
Firstly, aircon. Air conditioning units are about the most expensive appliance to run in an entire house. Many aircon units can also be reversed into a heating mode, but they are far more expensive to run than a traditional gas boiler powered central heating system, unless you have the air con unit powered by solar panels.
Aircon can be as much as 2Kwh per hour, which means it’s using two precious units of electricity every hour. At roughly 26p a unit, In four hours, you could save about £2.08. Across a whole month that’s more than £60 off your bill.
Hot tubs are another very expensive item to run.
Many hot tubs and jacuzzis are set up so that they’re left on all year round. The idea is that heating up to temperature is the expensive part, and simply topping up that temperature is cheap, and it’s always ready to hop in at a moment’s notice.
Unfortunately, unless you’re using it several times a week and you really value that convenience, it’s still probably cheaper to turn it off and heat it up each time if you only use it a few times a year.
A hot tub can use about 2.5kwh per day to keep heated, or a crazy £150 a month, whereas heating up a hot tub may cost about £10 each time. So if you’re not using it that often, it’s cheaper not to leave it heating 24/7.
Garden water features are also expensive. Unless they happen to be solar powered, of course. If they’re wired to your mains, they can actually add about 30p a day or £10 a month to your energy bill. That’s £120 a year just to watch your water feature trickling.
TVs are also expensive to leave on standby. Many TVs now have no option to turn off completely at all – they are always on standby.
And smart TVs stay connected to your wifi even when they’re off, downloading updates and uploading data even when you think they aren’t doing anything. Leaving a TV on standby all year round costs about £12.
That might not sound like a lot, but that’s £12 for doing absolutely nothing when it isn’t being watched.
Finally, fans can add a lot to your energy usage. In winter, it’s far more cost effective to just open a window than use a fan, which can add as much as £5 a month to your energy bill.
