From being smart about using the heating, to monitoring your use of kitchen appliances, there are lots of small changes you can make which could save you money on your energy bills.

One of the things you might not have thought about is how much energy is drained by appliances that are plugged in but not being used. If you leave an appliance plugged in and switched on, even if you are not actively using the product, it will actually drain electricity!

Here are some of the worst offenders you may want to consider turning off during the day while they are not in use, this list could save you hundreds a year!

Fridge/freezer

As a fridge/freezer needs to constantly be on, it is unsurprising that over 12% of the entire household’s energy comes from the fridge/freezer alone, costing households around £114.24 per year.

Obviously you can’t just turn off your fridge when you’re not using it but there is a way to be more energy efficient. Regular cleaning of the fridge, both external and internal cleaning, is the simplest way to ensure it runs efficiently. Dusting the exterior means dust won’t get into the system and affect how it works and cleaning the interior and disposing of any out of date food means the fridge doesn’t need to work as hard to keep food cool or frozen.

TV

A 2021 study showed that a massive 98% of UK households admit to leaving their TV on standby at all times, with many wrongly assuming that turning off via the remote switches it off entirely, however this isn’t always the case.

Leaving the TV plugged in and switched on uses 1.3kWh. As the average cost of electricity is now £0.28 per unit, this can add £132.86 a year to your bill.

Games consoles

Games consoles tend to be left switched on and plugged on alongside tv’s.

Simply ensuring it is turned off completely can save £4.20 each day, as when a typical games console is left on standby it uses a hefty 15kWh per hour.

Kettle

Kettle’s can use up a lot of power left on during the day to conviently use, you wouldn’t think it, but a kettle is one of the worst energy vampires.

Leaving an average kettle plugged in and switched on when not in use uses around 0.3kWh, this adds around £30.66 to your annual bill.

Exercise equipment

Sports equipment still uses power even if not turned on and in use and these can be one of the most costly.

An average exercise bike uses 7kWh when left on standby which will add just under £20 to your annual bill.

Plugged in chargers

We are all guilty of leaving our chargers plugged in and ready to charge our devices whenever we need them, but it would be wrong to assume the charger will only cost money if a device is actually plugged in.

Leaving an empty charger plugged in is adding unnecessary costs to your bills, adding around £20 to your annual bill.

Alarm clocks

If your alarm clock is mains operated and is plugged in all the time, a standard digital alarm clock uses 3kWh, so when left on 24 hours a day, uses around £7.36 per year.

To make further savings, you could consider turning off your clock when not in use and simply reset the time and your alarm before going to bed.

What else can you think of?

Technology giants Apple to introduce 37 new emojis on the 3rd of February.

The emoji’s are being introduced as Apple tests out new software as part of the IOS 15.4 update.

The update will include emoji’s such as seven new smiley’s, the biting lip emoji and the pregnant man and pregnant person emoji’s, in an effort for Apple to be representative of people other than cis females who can become pregnant.

Emojipedia, part of the California-based Unicode Consortium, the central bank of all approved emoji commented, ‘the pregnant man and pregnant person serve to recognise that pregnancy is possible for some transgener men and non-binary people.’

The seven smileys will include the Melting Face, Dotted Line Face, Face Holding Back Tears and Face with Diagonal Mouth.

Additional emojis Apple are incorporating include a slide, disco ball, a low battery, a piece of coral, a kidney bean, and a motorcycle tyre.

The full list of emojis according to the Unicode Consortium is now reportedly at 3,633. However, it is up to individual companies, such as Apple, to decide which ones appear on their devices.

In this update Apple has chosen to focus on gender inclusively, Keith Broni at Emojipedia commented on how technology companies are trying to make sure everyone can see themselves represented, ‘Since 2019, vendors have been making considerable efforts to offer all people emojis with three different gender variants – one “Man”, one “Woman”, and a non-gender-specifying ‘Person.’

Jane Soloman, Emojipedia’s ‘senior emoji lexicographer’ wrote in a blog post, ‘Naming conventions aside, men can be pregnant. This applies to the real world and to fictional universes (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior and Lil Nas X’s promotional materials for his album “Montero.”) People of any gender can be pregnant too. Now there are emojis to represent this.

What do you think about the new additions?