The ‘vampire devices’ you need to unplug to save up to £150 on energy bills
With the energy price cap rising from October 1, households will be looking at ways to reduce their gas and electricity bills through the winter months.
One quick and easy way to do this is to ensure appliances are switched off at the wall when not in use.
Households are thought to waste 5-16% of their energy through standby power, depending on which study you read. (The Energy Saving Trust calculated 9-16% of energy was wasted, while Bloomberg cited a study saying it was 5-10%)
With the average electricity bill in the UK standing at nearly £950, families could be wasting up to £150 a year by not switching off their appliances.
Electricals such as televisions, set top boxes, DVD players, games consoles and computers draw power in standby mode, while chargers can still use energy even when there is no device connected.
Other appliances use power for their electronic displays, or lie dormant ready to respond to requests quickly.
Due to how much energy they drain, some have branded them ‘vampire appliances’.
Switching off at the mains will not only reduce your bills but also your carbon footprint, and you won't be losing out either as it's just wasted energy.
Vampire device checklist
We've created a checklist of electricals for you to beware of around the house.
Some may be appropriate to look at daily, while others are useful for when you're away from the house for longer periods of time, such as on holiday.
- Television
- Set-top box/DVD player
- Games console
- Computer/monitor/laptop
- Printer
- Chargers
- Wifi router
- Sound system/speakers (eg. Soundbar or Alexa)
- Cordless phone
- Electric toothbrush charger
- Coffee makers with digital displays or timers
- Alarm clocks
- Other bedside devices like sun light
- Dishwasher/washing machine - use the off button!
- Ovens
The worst vampire devices
TVs and set-top boxes are the worst culprits for draining energy while on standby.
British Gas looked at the average time households left a device on standby over 24 hours and the average power used.
Our team at NimbleFins has then used the energy price cap for October 1 2024 to work out how much this would cost a consumer.
The most expensive were:
| Appliance | Total cost per year |
|---|---|
| 1. Television | £21.53 |
| 2. Set top box | £20.21 |
| 3. Wifi router | £16.53 |
| 4. Microwave | £14.32 |
| 5. Games console | £10.65 |
| 6. Computer | £9.82 |
| 7. Shower | £8.58 |
| 8. Smart speakers/smart home devices | £7.82 |
| 9. Dishwasher | £6.00 |
| 10. Tumble dryer | £4.19 |
| 11. Washing machine | £4.14 |
| 12. Printer | £3.33 |
| 13. Mobile device charger | £1.10 |
| Total | £128.23 |
How to reduce standby energy use
As well as manually switching off your appliances every night, there are a few other ways you could reduce the amount of electricity you waste with your items plugged in.
Firstly, you could gradually buy smart plugs that connect to your phone so you can control everything from one place, rather than having to contort behind televisions and pull out microwaves every night.
Of course this does come with an initial cost of its own, so it might be something you decide to gradually roll out as finances allow.
Similarly you can use timer plugs to ensure items are only connected to power at certain times of day. This is particularly handy for putting lights on while you're on holiday but you could use them for televisions etc while you're asleep.
You can reduce the amount of time you put things on charge, remembering to unplug them once they've reached 100%.
It's also possible to adjust power settings on computers and TVs so they enter sleep mode or shut down after a shorter period of inactivity.
Finally, see if your TV, games consoles, printer or others have an 'instant on' feature. These are quick-start modes that make it faster to power up but means they are always kept in a low-power state. Disable this feature to reduce energy use.
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