![]() I am tired of being told by my wife to fill the kettle with just enough water to brew a cuppa. Surprisingly, this is four times the industry boast. If I boiled enough water for just a single cup – and did not fill the kettle any higher – I might save £32 a year by using less energy. When it’s empty – and no one is looking – I fill it right up and calculate that over a year it uses £66 of electricity. Perhaps my family is more thirsty than most as we boil the kettle half a dozen times a day. At this rate, three minutes of boiling works out at about 3p. This is based on the average home boiling its kettle 24 times a week half-filled – three times more than required for a cup of tea or coffee.Īfter shaking the kettle to see if it has water inside, I flick on the switch – it suddenly shows 2,226 watts on the meter. She tells me the Energy Saving Trust believes using less water in the kettle will save us £8 a year. Maybe my family is more addicted to new tech than most – but the findings are a surprise. ![]() It appears British Gas has under-estimated the savings I can make (£210). Left on standby, it consumes £80 a year in energy. Then there is my pride and joy sitting in the corner of the lounge – my stereo. It gives off a reading of 27 watts, meaning it is costing me £70 a year for being on standby. I then try the TV that spends its days and nights on standby. One of the main ones we keep hearing is the British Gas claim that you can save £110 a year by switching off devices left on standby The cost of living crisis has attracted a raft of energy-saving suggestions. Being a family of four and with chargers coming out of our ears, I estimate we are spending at least £60 on chargers that for most of the time are doing nothing but consuming electricity. If I were to leave this charger doing nothing for a year, it would cost me £16 of electricity. The meter tells me it is drawing 6.3 watts of electricity without charging any device. I start with my phone charger plugged into a socket in the kitchen of my house in Hertfordshire. ![]() It then shows me how much electricity is being used by the device. It plugs into a standard electrical socket – with the electrical item to be tested being plugged into the meter. To test the validity of the claim, I tool myself up with a new-fangled £20 power meter. It sounds far-fetched, but it bases this figure on the fact that ‘Brits could save 23 per cent on their electricity bills each year by switching off their vampire electronics’. One of the main ones we keep hearing is the British Gas claim that you can save £110 a year by switching off devices left on standby. Don't leave all those appliances on standby
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