ENERGY bills are set to drop across the country from today as the new price cap comes into effect.
The average household’s annual costs will drop by £426 as Ofgem reduces the previous cap.
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A drop in wholesale prices has seen the average bill fall to £2,074 from £3,280.
The energy price cap limits the amount typical households pay for fuel bills – although of course the more you use, the more you pay.
Last October, the Government stepped in to stop bills skyrocketing to over £4,000 under the price cap.
Instead it introduced the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) to limit the average bill to £2,500 but this has come to an end today.
A new price cap brings in new costs of running household appliances too.
Comparison website Uswitch has shared data with The Sun about how much you’ll be paying for your everyday energy use.
Of course, the cost of running appliances can vary depending on their wattage.
So, how much will you save from today?
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Bathroom – save over £15 a year
The cost of running a shower for 10 minutes under the EPG was 41.3p.
So having a shower every day would have cost you around £150 a year.
From today, it will cost you 37.5p for a 10-minute shower – or £135 a year.
Over the course of a year, it means you will save £15 just on showering.
If you dry your towel after a shower on a heated rail then you could be looking at an annual saving of 20p over the course of a year.
That’s because the cost of running one for an hour is dropping from 2.9p to 2.7p.
Living room – save over £6 a year
Watching television for an hour previously cost households around 3.2p.
Starting today though this will drop to 2.9p.
So if you watched the television for three hours a day for a year, this would save you around £3.29.
The cost of playing a games console will also fall from today.
It used to cost around 6.6p to run one of these gadgets for an hour.
One hour of play every day for a year would have added £24.09 to your energy bill before today.
Now, this will fall to £21.09 and will result in an annual saving of £3.
Kitchen – save £28 a year
The cost to boil a kettle of water for five minutes has today fallen to 7.5p from 8.3p.
So if you’re a keen tea drinker and you boil the kettle three times a day, every day, this will save you £8.72.
A washing machine used to cost 23.1p to run for an hour.
To do three loads of laundry a week for a year previously cost around £35.88.
The cost of running the machine will fall to 21p from today, costing the average household around £32.76 – a saving of £3.12.
Using a tumble dryer after washing them will also save you £1.40 if you did three loads a week for a year because the price of running one cycle will drop from 99p to 90p from today.
On top of that, a microwave will cost you 4p for 10 minutes of use under the new energy price cap.
Over the course of a year, this could add up to £14.60 if you used it every day for a year. This is a saving of £1.46 from under the EPG.
Using your oven previously cost 20.8p for an hour’s use, but this has fallen today to 18.9p.
It means an annual saving of up to £6.93.
While air fryers are known for being less energy-intensive than an oven, they can be quite costly depending on their wattage and how much you use them.
A 1.4kw air fryer used to cost households 46.2p for an hour’s use, but today it has fallen to 42p.
This could save a household around £6.24 in total over a year.
Plus, you’ll save 65p using a dishwasher four times a week over a year because it used to cost 26.7p to run for a cycle, but from today it will only cost 23.7p.
Bedroom – save over £2
Using a bedside light for an hour previously cost you 0.5p – but this will fall to 0.4p from today – a saving of 36p over the course of a year.
If you also have a television in your bedroom, you could save £1.10 a year if you watched an hour before bed every night for a year.
The average desktop fan previously cost 2.3p to run for two hours – but from today it will only cost 2.1p.
If you used this every day for a year it would save 70p.
Other electricals – £9.50
Even the price of running overhead lights is dropping from 6.6p to 6p over a week-long period – an annual saving of 22p.
Running a vacuum cleaner for one hour used to cost 24.4p an hour or £38 if you vacuumed three times a week every year.
But from today you’ll only be spending 22.5p an hour, a saving of £3 a year.
Depending on how much you iron, up until today you’d have been spending 84.5p under the EPG – or £44 a year.
But from today it’ll cost you just 78p an hour, which overall is a saving of £3.50 a year.
A 2.1kW inflatable hot tub cost 68.3p to run for one hour before. Under July’s prices, it will cost 63p.
That’s a saving of £2.75 if you used it once a week for a year.
How else can I save on energy bills?
There are plenty of ways to reduce your energy bill and some of them are pretty simple.
Summer is a good time to think about ditching your tumble dryer and using a washing line instead.
It will make a welcome change not to have to crank up the heating every time we need to dry our clothes.
And always think about how much money you’re spending on household appliances – the kettle is ranked one of the costliest, after the shower, heating and a fan-assisted oven.
You can read about how much they cost and how to keep prices down in our guides – like this one.
Also, Energy Saving Trust estimates that between 9-16% of electricity used in homes is through appliances in standby mode.
On a bill of £500, this could account for as much as £80. We’ve rounded up the worst devices to leave on standby.
And remember installing a smart meter is free and usually provided by your energy supplier.
They keep a real-time record of your energy consumption so you can keep an eye on what you’re using.
Meanwhile, we reveal the best way to use gadgets like air fryers and microwaves.
Plus, you’ve been cooking your dinner all wrong and it’s adding to your energy bills.
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