The energy saving gadgets to buy to cut your bills – and the ones to avoid

AS prices continue to rise, households might want to look at buying energy saving gadgets to help cut bill costs.

Over half (56%) of households have invested in new appliances to help them with energy bill costs, according to Smart Energy.

In total, the average household has spent £645 on gadgets in the past year alone, with one in six (15%) buying an air fryer.

But some appliances will be worth the investment while others won’t make you much of a saving.

Smart Energy partnered with Energy Savings Trust and consumer champion Angelica Bell to reveal the appliances that are and aren’t worth buying.

They based this on how long it would take a customer to make back however much the gadget cost through energy use.

Gadgets like air fryers and heated clothes airers are a sage investment.

Using an air fryer instead of an oven could save you roughly £45 a year on energy and would only take you three and a half years to make back the money you spent on buying it.

The power of an air fryer is measured in watts, and this determines how much energy it uses – and the cost of using it.

But the more powerful the appliance, the quicker it will cook your food too.

A 1,000W air fryer costs just 17p to run for 30 minutes and 34p to run for an hour.

While a 1,500W air fryer will set you back 26p for half an hour, and 51p for an hour’s use.

And a heated airer could save you £40 a year compared to using a tumble dryer.

With heated airers, based on the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), running a typical heated airer for an hour costs 16p.

So, if you had it on for eight hours, it would cost £1.28.

The research also found that the two would take less than five years to pay off however much you spend on them through the amount of energy saved.

This is a lot less than ovens and tumble dryers.

Even though Spring is basically here, it’s still quite chilly but switching to a heated blanket could save you money.

Compared to an electric heater, the electric blanket can save you £7 a year.

In comparison, the research revealed that it would take Brits more than 35 years to make back the cost of a games console compared to PC games.

Typically, you could save around £10 a year by switching to PC games.

Plus, for those wanting to keep cool, you’d pay off the cost of a desk fan much quicker than using a small air conditioning unit.

Using a fan for eight hours would cost you the same as using an air-conditioning unit for 15 minutes.

A basic fan could cost you around £18 and you’d pay it off within a year.

Don’t forget about turning your thermostat down as well.

Households could save a huge £145 annually by just turning it down by one degree.

Plus, if you’re able to shower for less, shortening it by four minutes can save you £95 a year.

What other ways are there to save on energy bills?

Adjusting the flow rate on you boiler is definitely not the only way to cut down on energy bills.

For example, using the eco setting on your washing machine could save a whopping £63 a year.

That’s because it reduces the amount of water being used in the wash and therefore adjusts energy consumption levels.

And switching to eco-mode on the dishwasher could save another £28 a year because of similar reasons.

You can save a further £53 by simply using the spin cycle setting on your tumble dryer.

It will remove excess water from the wash which will help your clothes to dry faster.

Vampire appliances can also soak up the cash if you’re not careful too, like fridge freezers.

Keeping your fridge freezer clean can also save £45 a year – dust on the condenser coils can reduce the efficiency by as much as 25% says Which?

And failing to defrost it for instance could be adding on an extra £150 a year.

Read more about costly vampire appliances, and how to cut down, in our roundup here.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk