Households across the UK will be feeling the financial pinch of winter as energy bill predictably rise in the winter months.
But further pressure has been piled on families after Ofgem announced a 54% increase in the energy price cap last week.
With bills expected to rise in April, consumers could save more than £3,000 over athe next 10 years by switching to more energy-efficient appliances when their old machines need replacing.
New research reveals from consumer watchdog Which? claims that the switch could give people a saving of £336 annually, which would amount to £3,360 over the next decade.
Which? calculated the energy efficiency of different tumble dryers, washing machines, fridge freezers, ovens and dishwasher models by testing them against the energy price cap.
The difference in costs on different household appliances according to Which?
The findings reveal the differences in costs between A-rated machines and found in some cases, B and C-rated machines are cheaper to run.
The least efficient appliances in each category combined cost £490 per year to run. But opting for the most energy-efficient appliances, consumers could save up to £154.
Research also revealed that while these energy-efficient appliances are more expensive up front, they are cheaper to run, on average, over the products’ lifetime.
For example, a Hotpoint FFU3DX1 costs £134 in energy bills a year, whereas the LG GBB92MCBAP costs £30 in annual energy bills, providing a saving of £104.
The research comes at a time when the UK is facing an ongoing energy crisis due to the rising price of wholesale gas.
Lisa Barber, Which? Home Products and Services Editor, said: “Choosing the right appliances for your home could cut hundreds of pounds a year from your energy bills and reduce your environmental impact.
“This is crucial at a time when most of us are already facing higher energy bills and having to tighten the purse strings.
“Which?’s running cost tools allow consumers to easily compare the energy efficiency of popular household appliances – helping them buy better and choose the best product in the long run.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here