Your kettle being plugged into your kitchen sockets is spinning your smart meter and adding to your energy bills.
It’s something you probably use every day morning, noon and night, given that the average British person consumes 2.7 cups of tea per day.
What you may not realise is that your kettle, as a rapid boiling heating device, is actually one of the most expensive appliances in your whole house to run, it’s just that it’s only usually used for a few minutes at a time.
But your kettle’s contribution to your energy bills doesn’t end when the cuppa’s brewed, and in fact a typical UK kettle will keep on spinning your meter even when it’s not in use.
That’s because, according to energy experts at British Gas, a kettle continues to draw power even when it’s not on the boil.
Households are being urged to unplug their kettle when not in use (Image: Getty)
Because a normal kettle has no ‘off switch’, it carries on using up electricity when it’s plugged into a socket in your kitchen, unless you have a switch to turn off at the wall or you unplug it. And unless you do that every day, your kettle has been adding to your electricity bills this whole time, for absolutely nothing.
British Gas says: “Small changes to how you use electricity can add up. Unplugging appliances like kettles and other appliances instead of leaving them on standby are good habits to get into and every little counts towards lower energy bills.”
According to Charlie Pugsley, London Fire Brigade’s Deputy Commissioner, you should unplug all of your appliances when not in use or when going away, to save money and reduce fire risk.
He told Saga: “You should turn off and unplug all unnecessary electrical appliances to save money and reduce the risk of an electrical fire.
“In your kitchen, for example, do this with kettles, toasters, and microwaves.”
It’s a good time to cut energy bills (is there a bad time?), because Ofgem just raised the price cap in October, and it’s set to go up again slightly in January too.
The average household now pays £1,755 for gas and electrity, but that’s an average – so if you use more, you pay even more.
