Energy prices: the household appliances using the most electricity in your home

Which appliances are eating up your electricity

With families across Oldham facing unprecedented rises in the cost of electricity and gas, a new list of the most - and least - power-hungry appliances has been published.

Your dishwasher is the biggest user of electricity, with 2,550kwh (kilowatts per hour), and the humble toaster gives you the best value for money at just 0.06kwh.

The research, provided by Jorvik Tricycles also calculated how long you would have to cycle, if your home were supplied by pedal-power.

The tongue-in-cheek calculation showed almost twenty-four hours of non-stop cycling would power your dishwasher for a day, whilst it would take nineteen hours to power your washing machine.

It would take thirty minutes of cycling to power your toster for the day.

Top power-hungry appliances:

1 Dishwasher, 2,550 kwh
2 Shower, 2,190 kwh
3 Washing machine 2,100 kwh
4 Dryer 1,680 kwh
5 Hairdryer 0.25 kwh
6 Microwave 0.08 kwh
7 Toaster 0.06 kwh

With homes making up about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, there are some small and easy changes you can make in the home to start shrinking your carbon footprint. Although switching to cleaner or greener, more sustainable energy sources is one of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint, this is a big and costly change.
 
Instead, as heating is one of the biggest producers of carbon emissions within the home, it's recommended to reduce the need for heating by improving your insulation to trap as much heat as possible.

One of the most cost effective ways to do so is draught-proofing; ensuring lofts, window frames and door treads are sealed or blocked in some way to avoid heat escaping and cold air getting in.

Other small steps include; ensuring all your lightbulbs are more energy efficient LED bulbs, turning off or unplugging appliances when on standby, when buying new appliances try to buy the most energy efficient, drive less and cycle more.

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