You can’t escape the skyrocketing prices we’re grappling with today. Almost everything from your utility bills to your starter home costs more today than it did a year ago. To survive this era of inflation, all you have to do is save where you can, and upgrading some of your outdated, time- and energy-consuming household appliances is a big step in the right direction.
It’s probably no surprise that it is best air fryers that dominate many of our energy saving conversations. The local hairdressers and bakers also praise the time-saving kitchen beasts. We’re also on the lookout for deals on other devices like dehumidifiers and heated drying racks that can save you money in the long run.
When it comes to building a smart home, there are many ways to make your home more efficient. That best smart locks can alert you when a door has been left open and heat is escaping; and the The best smart thermostats activates central heating when and where you want it.
Money saving expert earlier this month Martin Lewis unveiled a simple equation that can help you reduce your winter energy bills in Great Britain, which the rest of the world can also use. The math is to find the wattage of an item, then find how many kilowatts or what fraction of a kilowatt it uses, and then multiply that by the cost in kw per hour. But since we can’t do all of these calculations when needed, it might be easier to choose a device or smart home gadget that you know will save you money in the long run.
We’ve already done the Lewis calculations so you don’t need to do this. Below we’ve rounded up some of the top gadgets and smart home gadgets that can help you save money on your utility bills.
The must-have devices and smart home gadgets for 2023
There’s plenty of choice out there, but if you’re careful about where you put your money, you’ll start to see utility bills go down.
air fryers
Air fryers come in abundance in all sizes and shapes these days, but the Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 Air Fryer with ClearCook & OdorErase is the best you can get. We particularly like the window that lets us keep an eye on food as it cooks, as well as the odor-reducing filter – although the smell of food wafting through the air isn’t always bad.
Air fryers can save you money by preparing food much faster than a traditional oven. You save time preparing food, but you also save time on energy consumption. We calculated the energy consumption of an air fryer in our article, “Do hot air fryers use a lot of electricity?In the UK, a 1700W basket air fryer used on average for around 30 minutes a day costs about 0.56p a day, £3.98 a week or £17.08 a month, which is a fraction of what it would cost to operate a cooker stove for the same amount of time.
Air fryers also offer a healthier way to cook food as they use less oil/fat. No one is going to throw their traditional oven at the air fryer, but technically, the latter doesn’t take up that much space.
Smart thermostats
We’re featuring tado° in this little roundup because we’ve heard so many good things about it and it’s relatively affordable to begin with.
Research has shown that users with tado° smart thermostats can save an average of 22% on their heating bills over the course of a year.
These thermostats are easy to use and feature a sleek and simple design. They can be used individually or with additional radiator valves for zone control. The tado° also works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple’s HomeKit, meaning you’re not limited to one smart system. There are of course other smart thermostats that will all save you on heating bills, albeit in a slightly different way. Our handy widget (below) showcases some of the best deals currently available.
dehumidifier
Dehumidifiers have been around for a while, but we probably think of them most often as a tool for drying wet plaster after a home improvement project. Most households have one of these devices, whether in the house, utility room, or garage, but chances are they’re underutilized. After all, these gadgets have so many other incredible uses around the home.
Savings expert Lewis recently shared that drying your clothes with a 200W dehumidifier – instead of a large upright dryer – could cost you as little as 7p an hour (UK); 200W is one fifth of a kW (1,000W) and one fifth of 34p is about 7p. Admittedly, dehumidifiers don’t come cheap, with some costing up to £400, but if you have a lot of laundry days a week and rely on the tumble dryer to get linens and clothes dry, the dehumidifier could be a wise investment to make. This Insignia dehumidifier is capable of removing moisture from a 2000 square foot room, so you’re not limited to which room it’s in either – you need one normal drying rack (opens in new tab) to hang up the laundry.
It’s worth noting that dehumidifiers not only remove moisture from the air, but also release some heat while purifying the air, effectively drying you out while warming up a room in your home and breathing in purified air. The versatility of a good dehumidifier is simply unbeatable!
Smart locks
You may be wondering how smart locks can save you money, but we think outside the box. With the ability to essentially control your front door with an app, you’ll have one less thing to remember (your keys) while saving some cash.
One of the things you can do with the August Smart Lock Pro is “smart notifications” that let you know when the door is locked or unlocked, when the door is left open, when the door locks or unlocks automatically, and like that. In other words, it always keeps an eye on the status of your lock, which is especially helpful for the many of us who can’t remember exactly whether we’ve locked the door or not. Now you don’t have to waste your worries on this question or bring time and energy back home to check. You also won’t let heat or air conditioning escape if you happen to have left a door wide open.
The August Smart Lock Pro isn’t the only lock that can do this. In the UK we (also) have them Yale Conexis L2 (opens in new tab), as alternative. Upgrading to a smart lock is costly, but it can be a smart — and safe — investment.
Heated drying rack
Heated air handling units were all the rage in 2022 and we expect this trend to continue well into 2023. We saw that in the UK Dry:Soon Deluxe 3-Tier Heated Airer (opens in new tab) sold out at the start of the fall season and won’t be available again until around Black Friday.
This clothes airer hasn’t earned any discounts due to its popularity, but the energy savings count: this clothes airer is said to have a running cost of just 10p per hour (based on a unit electricity cost of 34p per kw/h). It can hold up to 15 kg of laundry on a 21 m drying surface and dries all laundry within a few hours. So you may have to spend 40p instead of £2-3 with the tumble dryer.
why are they so good They dry your laundry much faster than the non-electrified dryers and are miles cheaper than the tumble dryer. If you’re not in the UK, our handy widget (below) will show you some of the best deals and availability.
You can save a lot of money by making a few simple appliance upgrades in your home. Not only can you boil the amount of water you need in the kettle (top tip), but you can also save money by investing in products that use less time and energy. I think most of us will welcome a more affordable 2023 with open arms.
