How to make Choosing Appliances easier?
Choosing and finding appliances can be a tricky and overwhelming experience, trying to make sure you find the right one for you and your home. To make this really easy, we at Homesmart Energy advice our customers to look at the energy rating label.
Most online stores will give you the option to compare the appliances you have chosen and this will help you establish the right appliance for you.
However; the most important part of choosing an appliance is the energy rating. The next is the size of the appliance you need. If you bare these two points in mind, you will save yourself a lot of time and in the long run money too.
What is an energy Label how does it work?
All appliances on the market today are rated by energy consumption. These ratings range from A+++ to G, you’ll find stickers on all the appliances in the stores, and these stickers help you to determine the energy rating of the product and how much money you are going to be using by purchasing them.
If the appliance is A+++ this is the best rating and lowest consumption of all, then as you scale down to G this is the most energy consuming and will cost you more money to run. Now imagine your fridge freezer is a G and it has a lifespan of 17 years… the cost to run that appliance over the years is going to be expensive, in comparison to the highly energy efficient A+++ rating.
Quit using Standby on your appliances
The quick note of standby, is to save you £55 per year, quit using standby on your appliances.
The average home, will consume up to £55 for appliances on standby per year. There are so many appliances that are left in standby, wifi modems, telephones, tv’s, phone chargers, smart speakers, your sky box or digibox, there’s also hair dryers, hair straighteners and let’s not forget electric toothbrushes and shavers. More often than not these items are all left on standby.
Some of these not only consume energy – even if it is low usage, but they also pose as a fire risk.
To help you minimise the energy consumption, we recommend you invest in standby savers, these can have timers on and some are so simple, they allow you turn off all your standby appliances in one go! Pretty cool right!
Try not to be too alarmed though, EU regulations changed in 2013, which ultimately means the standby power must not exceed o.5W for non-networked items. Those that are networked such as tv’s and games consoles, that use internet they must be 3-12W. it’s worth checking your standby usage, if you can.
Although our advice remains the same, TURN IT OFF at the switch as often as you can.
Ovens
Everyone needs the facilities to cook, and majority of households use the oven on a daily basis. Some tips to help you save on your next cooker purchase, be mindful of the self cleaning ovens they have a feature called pyrolytic, and this has a high energy consumption. The highest rated gas and electric ovens are A+++.Be sure to check the energy label as mentioned above. You’ll find the ratings on both gas and electric ovens.
Microwave & Halogen Ovens
Not many people know this little trick, but Microwaves, are more cost efficient than most conventional ovens, as they heat only the food, and not the air! Another trick to the oven market is the upcoming halogen ovens they not only cook food quicker, but they are really cost effective to run, they are absolutely a better alternative to using the conventional oven.
Dishwashers
Whether you have a full sized dishwasher or a slimline, you are going to see a rise in your energy bills, with each cycle. Dishwashers use more water, and heat more than the average the washing machine. Be mindful of the energy rating here though there is a catch.
Whilst the A+++ energy rating is by far the best rating with all other appliances, research shows that the most efficient dishwasher is rated a D, it costs on overage £19 less per year than other ratings and also uses less water.
Fridges, Freezers And Fridge-Freezers
We’ve mentioned this before but let’s state the obvious. Your fridge freezer is going to cost you more than any other appliance due to the fact it is switched on 24/7.
Here are some ways in which you can save more money with your next purchase. Choosing a fridge freezer is a long term investment, due to it’s life span on average of 17 years.
Be mindful of the energy rating you are choosing. A+++ will be more sustainable in terms of running costs.
There is also a simple comparison example: If you buy a D rated fridge freezer instead of an F rated fridge freezer you could save on average up to £570 over the lifetime of the product.
It’s also worth noting the size of the fridge freezer that you actually need, the bigger the appliance the more energy you will consume.
Kettles
How to save money with your kettle! Only fill your kettle to what you need, overfilling means more energy being used than you need to spend. If you haven’t yet swapped your kettle to an ECO friendly Kettle, we are homesmart energy suggest you do so, the reason we suggest this is to save you water and energy costs. An Eco kettle will boil water it needs and not a drop more. Saving you up to 20% in comparison to your average conventional kettle.
Tumble Dryers
Ok, so we all know there are 2 ways you can dry your clothes for free. Outside on the line and in the house using clothes airers.
We also know that’s not always convenient, especially in the winter months.
What we can do is look at how we use these appliances rather than not suing them at all.
The energy rating scale for tumble dryers is as follows: A+++ to D rating. Most Tumble dryers will have an average lifespan of 13 years, and choosing an A+++ rated machine you could save up to £640 in the products lifetime.
Majority of Tumble dryers have sensors and special settings making sure you don’t over use your machine and some even have weight sensors so they also become very intuitive.
Some have sensors that tell you when your clothes are dry enough, preventing you from wasting energy by over drying your laundry.
There are two sources of Tumble dryer that can help you save energy, one of those sources is the electric heat pump that recycles the heat in the ventilation and the other is a gas connected tumble dryer.
But as all things energy consumption the less you use it, the more you will save and the happier your energy bill will be.
Washing Machines
Saving money with your washing machine is as easy as 1…2…3..
Only use your machine when you have a full load or select the half load option, to save water and energy.
Use an energy efficient machine rated A+++
Keep your temperature to a lower setting
These little tips, will help you maximise your savings.
Desktop, Laptop PCs And Tablets
Research shows that, Laptops typically use 65% less electricity over a year than desktop PCs. Avoiding leaving the laptop in standby and you could save up to £25 per year.
Tablets have even lower energy usage – on average, tablets use 70% less power than laptops.
Smart Speakers And DAB Radios
Whilst Smart speakers don’t have a huge financial dent in the energy consumption of your home, they still cost around £7 per year. It’s worth considering whether you do need them on 24 hours a day.
If you also love digital radio, make sure to turn it off at the switch when not in use and you can add to saving more pennies.
Televisions
Who doesn’t love the big screen, it’s all energy consuming though and unfortunately, TV’s are the most energy consuming of all entertainment products.
Your TV is not just eating all your energy due to the movement on the screen, the lighting, the colours, the size, the time it’s turned on for and the shape all have impacts on how much energy it consumes.Remember to use the energy rating for your new appliance if you are upgrading, alongside the OFF switch, turn your tv off, leaving it in standby will cost you more in the longrun.
The way your tv is lit up is also a huge factor in energy consumption, are you using LED, or OLED or QLED. The most cost effective does come at a premium, but if you want to save your energy consumption over the years in which your TV will be in use you may consider switching to an OLED or QLED backlighting, as each pixel lights itself – saving you more money.
How to dispose of Old Appliances?
You can recycle your products by selling them on, or you can take them to the local household waste site, where they will either be refurbished for others to use or disposed of in the correct manner. Electrical items should be disposed of carefully due to the nature of their materials.
