Although October in the UK is milder, winter is definitely coming. And for people who have put off turning on their heating until the weather remains tolerable, the stress of a cold snap during the cost of living crisis can weigh heavily.
With the government’s energy price guarantee now only running until April 2023 instead of the first two years when it was first announced, energy experts at Forbes Advisor, the comparison and financial guidance platform, analyzed the current costs of common household appliances, to to see if households can make easy trades and savings.
The Energy Price Guarantee aims to reduce unit costs for electricity and gas so that a typical household could save around £700 this winter based on energy prices as they would be under the current price cap.
Forbes Advisor, using data from multiple sources including gov.uk, the Center for Sustainable Energy and the Energy Saving Trust, has calculated the kind of savings Britons could make on heating and cooking.
Let’s take a look at some appliances you can trade in to keep this winter…
Cost saving replacement for gas central heating
The first thing many households will worry about the most is gas central heating.
They first estimated the estimated costs per week in 2022 compared to 2021.
Gas central heating for a week in 2022 based on the above price is £23.10, which is dramatically higher than the average price of £8.09 per week in 2021.
So replacing your gas central heating with a plug-in heater is a swap you can make.
A plug-in heater costs £1.19 to run in 2022, up from £0.67 in 2021, but is still much cheaper than gas central heating.
By replacing your central heating with an electric heater, you can expect an average saving of £21.91 per week or £1,139.32 per year.
Replace the oven
Another cost savings can come from cooking with a microwave or slow cooker instead of an electric oven.
Forbes Advisor estimates that an electric fan oven costs £2.14 to run per week in 2022, up from £1.20 on an annualized basis.
Replacing your oven with a microwave fan could save you an average of around £2.28 per week or £118.56 per year.
Similarly, replacing an electric oven with a slow cooker can deliver net savings of £2.28 per week or £118.56 per year.
2022 vs. 2021 appliance costs
While you can do a small sampling of swaps, the full list of annual costs can be found below.
Take a look at the list and see if some appliances you use more often can be replaced with a cheaper alternative.
The weekly cost for 2022 is based on the guaranteed energy price, and the cost for 2021 is calculated as an annual average.
- Gas central heating – £23.10 2022 vs £8.90 2021
- Freezer – £17.14 2022 vs £9.58 2021
- Tumble dryer – £2.81 2022 vs £1.57 2021
- Electric oven (fan) – £2.64 2022 vs £1.47 2021
- television – £2.26 2022 vs £1.26 2021
- Electric oven – £2.14 2022 vs £1.20 2021
- Electric stove – £1.63 2022 vs £0.91 2021
- Slow cooker – £1.55 2022 vs £0.86 2021
- Gas stove – £0.36 2022 vs £0.13 2021
- Plug-in electric heater – £1.19 2022 vs £0.67 2021
- Washing machine – £1.14 2022 vs £0.64 2021
- A full kettle – £1.02 2022 vs £0.57 2021
- Coffee machine – £0.45 2022 vs £0.25 2021
- Air fryer – £0.38 2022 vs £0.21 2021
- Microwave – £0.36 2022 vs £0.20 2021
- Hair dryer – £0.29 2022 vs £0.16 2021
- An electric blanket – £0.27 2022 vs £0.15 2021
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