Save up to £300 on energy bills with these underused appliance settings

Cropped Hand Of Person Adjusting Washing Machine dial

(Image credit: Getty images)

published 9 March 2023

Slash hundreds of pounds off your energy bill by using these underused appliance settings.

Even if the Energy Price Guarantee gets extended for another three months or you’re hoping for energy prices to go down later in the year, households should still be looking at how to cut energy costs as the average household is still paying around £2,500 per year.

We tell you how you can cut up to £300 off your energy bill over a year by using these underrated settings on your appliances.

The settings you need to change on your appliances

It’s time to look at how much it costs to run your dishwasher, kettle and tumble dryer and see how you can cut costs.

According to the experts, these are the settings you should switch your appliances on and you can nearly £300.

Boiler - save up to £112

If you have a combi boiler, check its factory settings. Most combi boilers are set to 80C, but this isn’t an efficient temperature for your boiler to operate in.

Lowering your boiler’s flow temperature will regulate the water temperature that goes from your boiler to your radiator and it can save you an average £112 on your energy bill.

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Product Officer at Octopus Energy said: “Safely turning down the water flow temperature of your gas boiler is a little-known but very effective tip for saving gas whilst staying warm, and could save people up to 8% off their gas bills.”

Dishwasher - save £28

The dishwasher is one of the most energy-hungry appliances in the kitchen, but by making this small change you can cut just under £30.

According to Ben Gallizzi from Uswitch, using the eco setting can save up to 20% energy as it uses less power to heat the water.

Washing machine- Save up to £63

Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch said: “The kitchen is home to some of the biggest energy-guzzlers in the house, and the dishwasher is up there with the washing machine as one of the worst.

Using a washing machine’s eco settings can save between 33% and 59% of your annual bill. A typical household might save £37 a year by using the eco mode.”

You can save further pounds by dropping the temperature you wash your garments on 30C rather than 40C and this can save you around £26 per year.

There will be certain things that require a high-temperature wash, for example towels, bedsheets, underclothes or stained items.

By making both of these changes, you could save around £63 per year.

Tumble dryer- save up to £53

Depending on what type of tumble dryer you use, it could be costing you up to £200 per year to use. But if you action the following, you could save up to £53 per year when using your tumble dryer:

Use the spin cycle in your washing machine. Vijay Bhardwaj, Marketing Director at Beko plc says: “Selecting a high spin cycle on your washing machine will reduce the amount of water left in your garments, reducing the time it takes for your clothes to dry in the tumble dryer.”

And it’s worth switching to eco mode too.

TV- Save up to £22

The bigger your TV, the more pricey it gets to run, but there is a way you can cut the running cost of your TV.

According to Which? high-power picture settings for example vivid and dynamic use on around 71.4 watts, costing an average of £35.44 a year.

If you compare that to low power picture settings like eco, movie or cinema which uses an average 57.2 watts, it costs around £28.38 per year.

And according to Uswitch, you could save a further £14.56 per year by switching your TV off rather than putting it on standby.

So you would save an easy £7.06 per year just by switching your picture setting and £14.56 by not leaving your TV on standby, saving you a total £21.62.

Game consoles- save up to £12

Game consoles use a lot of energy, and according to Uswitch you can cut running costs by checking if your console lets you limit how long your controller charges for.

So if you’re someone who charges the controller overnight, you won’t be using more energy than you need to.

And the main saving being, if you stop putting your console on standby you can save an average of £12.17 per year.

How to save more on your energy bill

There are more ways you can make small changes and the small savings will add up over a year.

Don’t leave appliances on standby. If you’re a household that has more than one TV, multiple laptops and a music system at home, the cost of leaving them on standby can all add up. Energy Saving Trust say you can save around £35 per year by switching those devices off, but note you need to switch off 20 appliances before you make such a saving.

Only do full loads. When it comes to the dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer, Uswitch suggests doing loads in full as this could cut your bills by £40 a year.

Use a hot water bottle. On those colder nights if you switch out your electric blanket for a hot water bottle, you could save a decent amount over the winter months. To put it into perspective, it costs on average 7.8p to boil the kettle and fill a hot water bottle with 1.5L of water (and this lasts up to three hours), where as it costs 2p to 4p per hour to keep the electric blanket on. Do read the safety precautions when using either.

Check if you’re eligible for grants. Under government schemes like the ECO plus insulation grant (which could save households around £310 per year) or the Boiler Upgrade Scheme can heat your home in a more efficient way, and it would all be on the government. Although the waiting list on these might be long, it’s worth checking if you’re eligible.

Vaishali graduated in journalism from Leeds University. She has gained experience writing local stories around Leeds and Leicester, which includes writing for a university publication and Leicester Mercury.

She has also done some marketing and copywriting for businesses.

When she is not writing about personal finance, Vaishali likes to travel and she's a foodie.