A dad was shocked to discover that just one appliance in his kitchen was taking up one fifth of his entire electricity bill.
David Miles, 46, purchased a basic smart plug online to assess which items in his home were using up the most electricity. As energy bills soar across the UK, many people are looking into what areas that can cut back on in a bid to save money.
But David got a shock when he used the plug on his 25-year old American-style fridge freezer, the Express reports. “Incredibly, it ate up a fifth of my entire electricity bill. It's the same as my friend's hot tub", David said.
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Over the course of a year, it was using a staggering 1,600 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power. Today, each kWh of electricity costs 28p, according to regulator Ofgem, meaning David's fridge is costing him £448 a year to run.
From October, when the energy price cap jumps from £1,971 a year to £3,549 a year for the average home, electricity will jump to 52p per kWh, a rise of almost 86 per cent. This will drive up the cost of using his American fridge freezer to a staggering £832 a year, and David is taking action.
He said: "Buying a new one will save me at least £624 a year, so upgrading my fridge freezer will pay for itself in two or three years, plus I will also slash my home's carbon footprint.”
David is also taking other measures to cut his energy usage, such as upgrading his gas boiler which he reckons will cost £4,000 but cut his gas bills by 20 percent. “We could get our money back in four or five years."
David, whose company The PPC Machine helps mortgage brokers and financial advisers generate high quality leads from their own websites, says his toughest job is to make his children aware of the need to save energy. “I'm teaching them that light switches can turn off as well as on.”
Research from consumer champion Which? showed that American fridge freezers are the second most expensive household appliance to run, after condenser tumble dryers. Dryers cost the average household more than £262 a year from October, while American-style fridge freezers cost on average £223 a year to run from the autumn.
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