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Cutting Your Electricity Costs

(Image - Pie Chart showing % of electricity by appliance for the average household - see text for detail.)

Saving electricity is good for your purse and good for the environment.  We all use lots of electrical appliances but do you know which appliances use the most electricity? The Energy Saving Trust now estimate (in January 2021) that washing appliances use the most electricity particularly if you heat your water by electricity and use a tumble drier; but this obviously depends on your household. 

The piechart above shows that a typical household uses:

  • 16% for cold appliances (fridges, freezers)
  • 25% for wet appliances (washing machines, dish washers)
  • 19% for cooking (ovens, microwaves)
  • 16% for lighting
  • 19% for consumer electronics (TV, laptop, phone, games console)

When you need to buy a new appliance, be aware that the energy labelling has changed in March 2021 to a simple A to G scale (A is the most efficient).


What can you do

  • Use a lower temperature on your washing machine and reduce the number of washing and dishwashing cycles - do full loads only
  • Air dry clothes rather than using a tumble drier
  • Only boil water in the kettle that you need
  • Cook using the correct size burner and put a lid on pans
  • Check the door seal on your fridge/freezer, don't overload it, make sure it doesn't need defrosting and that the back is dust free.
  • Switch off appliances at the plug that don't need to be on standby
  • Switch off lights and change to LEDs
  • Take shorter showers
  • Set water heater to lowest comfortable setting
  • Turn heating down 1 degree and don't heat rooms you aren't using
  • Check water and heating times are relevant to your needs
  • If you have solar energy do washing and dishwashing when the sun is shining!
  • Investigate using a green energy supplier
  • Any small changes you make will make a difference

Sources of Information


13th November 2021