As the winter months rapidly approach, lots of us are thinking of ways to cut down our energy usage.
The cost of living crisis hasn’t gone away, and many are still trying to save the pennies where we can. One easy way to cut down your energy bills is making sure unnecessary electrical devices are switched off.
As well as working to cut down your bills, making some simple changes to the way you live will also benefit the environment too. On TikTok people have been talking about so-called “vampire appliances” that you should unplug from the wall if you don’t want them to drain your home’s energy.
Even though they’re not in use, they’re still “absorbing your energy,” and nobody likes a waste. From kettles to phone chargers, there are all sorts of things we’re guilty of leaving plugged in.
Now we have a reason to put a stop to it, as it could save us a lot of money.
Previously, Ian Palmer-Smith, appliance expert at Domestic & General, listed the “worst appliances” that households should “never leave on standby”. These include “vampire devices” that you need to physically unplug from the wall – from TVs to microwaves.
At the time, Ian said: “Some think that simply turning them off is sufficient, but there are many electrical products that continue to use power when left plugged in – these are often called ‘vampire devices’.”
He also emphasised the “most common vampire devices” include washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers, TVs and microwaves. Computer monitors, printers and coffee machines also suck a lot of energy too.
Ian explained: “Appliances that need to heat water use a lot of energy – which is why dishwashers, washing machines and kettles score so highly on energy consumption.
“They use more energy than others on standby as they need to be ready to heat water instantly, on demand.”
After motherk.earth shared a video explaining what the devices are, many social media users were left in shook. They couldn’t believe they’d been making such a big mistake.
One person said: “I didn’t know about this. Will surely do this.”
Another wrote: “Thanks for this tip.” A third replied: “Yes!”
To stop these appliances using up a load of energy, you need to unplug them entirely. Any appliance that’s still switched on or that continues to be plugged into a live socket, is using an electric current.
