Six ‘vampire appliances’ you must switch off and unplug before bills rise again | Personal Finance | Finance

November 24, 2025 3,138

Energy bills are set to soar again from January, with another rise confirmed by Ofgem to add more to the average household gas and electricity bills in a matter of weeks. While it’s not a big increase, this time just £3 on average for households on typical use – more if you use only electricity – it comes on the back of another rise in October, and energy bills are stubbornly high following years of big rises and the occassional, gentle reductions.

Ofgem said about its latest increase: “Between 1 January and 31 March 2026, the energy price cap is set at £1,758 per year for a typical household who use electricity and gas and pay by Direct Debit. This is an increase of 0.2% compared to the cap set between 1 October to 31 December 2025 (£1,755).”

While the best way to cut your bills is undoutedly to use power hungry appliances less, turn down your heating and swap to energy saving bulbs, you may not realise how much all your energy-sucking ‘vampire appliances’ are using in standby mode.

Putting appliances on standby could be way more costly than you realise, as the data shows.

Research from electricity and gas supplier Utilita has revealed that the average UK household has 10 items left plugged in at any one time despite them not even being in use.

Unsurprisingly, game consoles and TVs are the worst offenders, adding a significant chunk to your energy bills by the end of the year, but there are some appliances you probably wouldn’t even think of.

The most costly ‘vampire’ appliances to leave on standby

Xbox and PlayStation (Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PS4 and PS5)

While always fun to play, a games console becomes significantly less enjoyable when you realise just how much they could add to your energy by the end of the year.

According to Utilita, based on 2024 prices, a PS4 cost 2.41p per hour played, and an Xbox One cost 2.22p – this is because they use 130 and 120 watts, respectively, when in use. While prices have varied since then, the energy draw of the consoles hasn’t. In fact, in the latest October price cap figures, using a PS4 at 130W for one hour would cost 3p per hour.

When left on standby, the consoles still use 10 watts, meaning even when not in use they’re costing more than 0.18p per hour. While seemingly insignificant, it works out at 4.3p a day, equating to £15.76 a year.

The Xbox Series X and PS5 were released more recently, and these consoles are a little bit more power-hungry again due to being more powerful machines. The PS5 takes about 200w to run on average, but it can drop as low as 100-150 depending on the game.

So the PS5 will cost more to run than a PS4, but not massively so. Again, the best thing to do is not to leave it on standby but to shut it down entirely when you’re not using it.

PCs could cost much more than this if you have the latest top-of-the-range gaming rig!

TV standby costs

It’s very easy these days for our TVs to switch to standby mode without us being able to do much about it. Back in the day, your buttons were on the TV and off meant off, but today, most TVs cannot even be switched off without being unplugged or switched off at the wall.

This means that unless your TV is unplugged or switched off completely at the wall, it’s probably costing you a pretty penny throughout the year.

Utilita states a TV uses 40 watts of energy while in use, but much like the consoles, it uses 10 watts when sitting on standby.

That means, for five hours of watching it’s costing around 3p, but even if it’s left untouched all day but in standby, you’re still paying 4p a day.

Over the year this amounts to £15.76 just for the standby costs.

The size of your TV also matters —a 65″ TV is 50% larger than a 55″ TV, which means it will cost significantly more to run.

When you buy a TV, it should state the energy use – for example, 180kwh – which means it would use, in this example, 180w per hour. That means it would use 1 unit of power (1,000kw) in 5 hours. One unit is about 26p in the October 2025 price cap so it’s about £1.30 for five hours of TV watching.

Printers

Our printers have a sneaky habit of sitting out of sight and out of mind, unless you need it at a specific moment.

It might be worth unplugging it while tucked away and out of use, as this is third on the list for standby costs.

Like a TV, a printer uses around 40 watts of energy in use, and when still left on standby, it continues to eat up 4 watts.

Baby monitor

It’s universally known that babies are expensive to raise, so make sure you’re not making life any more difficult for yourself.

Of course, it’s needed when your baby is sleeping, but when your baby is with you and awake, it may be worth switching off and unplugging your baby monitor completely.

On average, a baby monitor uses around 15 watts of energy when in use. If left on round the clock, that’s 9p a day, or £32.85 a year.

Laptop

With so many of us moving to home/hybrid working, our laptops have become a critical part of our everyday lives.

Utilita says running a laptop for five hours will use about 75 watts of energy. In current prices, that’s 10p.

Make sure your laptop is unplugged when fully charged and switch it off when you’re finished, rather than just closing the lid.

While the device will only use around 3 watts of energy in standby mode, leaving on idle mode can cost an extra 2p a day, adding up to £6.92 over 12 months.