61What costs more to charge: phone or laptop?
Mode 3 in
Mecheer’s
electricity
monitor
shows the
amount
of time,
voltage and
frequency of
your devices
Mode 2 may be the most useful way to
calculate energy costs because it shows
you the total kilowatts-per-hour (KWh)
used, which the monitor calls ‘cumulative
electrical quantity’. You can then enter
this into the electricity-use calculator at
http://www.snipca.com/41787 to give you the
amount it’s costing you.
Control your energy
using smart plugs
Many modern TV sets don’t have off
switches – the best they offer is standby
mode. It’s not only TVs, either. From
microwave ovens to Hi-Fis, our homes are
filled with gadgets that you can’t switch
off properly. While this is convenient, it’s
also wasteful. According to the Energy
Savings Trust, these always-on devices
could be costing you £55 a year in wasted
energy (see http://www.snipca.com/41712)..)
You can fix this by turning devices off
at the socket, which is much more easily
done using smart plugs. These connect
wirelessly to your home network, so you
can switch them all on or off using an
app, or a smart speaker.
We recommend TP-Link’s smart plugs
(£10 each from http://www.snipca.com/41743),
and multi-socket power strips with three
sockets and two USB ports (£25 from
http://www.snipca.com/41748, pictured below
left). Both can be controlled from your
phone or tablet using the Kasa Smart app
for Android (www.snipca.com/41710)
and iOS (www.snipca.com/41711).
Usefully, the app lets you organise your
plugs into groups so you can control
several simultaneously, and even adjust
their on/off times to coincide with sunset
and sunrise. This latter function is
particularly useful if you have lamps
plugged into sockets and you only want
them to come on when it gets dark outside.Switch to a TV-streaming stick
If you’re using a set-top box to stream TV
and your TV set has a USB port, you
might want to consider switching to a
streaming stick, like the Amazon Fire TV
(from £30 at http://www.snipca.com/41746) or
Chromecast with Google TV (£60 from
http://www.snipca.com/41705). Connecting
them to the television’s HDMI port but
powering them from its USB port means
that when you switch off your TV using a
smart plug, they are switched off at the
same time. As a result, they will cost less
to run than a set-top box left on standby.
For a device that you switch on and off
at the same time every day – perhaps a
router or printer – consider buying a
mechanical timer for the socket, which
are cheaper than smart plugs. You can
pick up a pack of three for just £15 (www.
snipca.com/41747).Save with smart heating
Smart heating systems aren’t only
convenient: they can also be money
savers. A system like Hive from British
Gas owner Centrica lets you pair a
thermostat, hub and (optionally) a seriesof radiator valves to your router. Once
connected, they can each be controlled
via an online account at http://www.hivehome.
com, or via apps for Android (www.
snipca.com/41694) and iOS (www.
snipca.com/41695).
It costs a bit to get set up, with valves
costing £54 each (there are discounts if
you buy a multi-pack), and the hub and
thermostat combination starting at £119.
You’ll also need to pay for installation, but
you shouldn’t have to change your boiler
unless you have a heat pump or solid fuel
system (visit http://www.snipca.com/41696 and
scroll down to the ‘Frequently asked
questions’ header for a list of
incompatible systems).
In return, Hive claims you could save
£110 a year, which means that, if you
don’t buy any valves, you should recoup
your investment in a little under 14
months. Because your phone will know
when you take it out of the house, the
Hive app can warn you if you’ve left the
heating on. When it spots you heading
back home, if your house is below your
preferred temperature (see screenshot
above), it can notify you again, so you can
switch it back on. This saves you having
to guess when setting the thermostat and
reduces the likelihood you’ll burn energy
you could have saved.
Hive isn’t the only option. Google’s
Nest Thermostat (www.snipca.com/41697)
costs £219 and, Google claims, can recoup
its cost in two years. It does this by learning
your preferences and how your heating
system works, so you can make logical
adjustments to minimise waste.That’s a good question, and one that
price-comparison site USwitch has tried
to answer. It calculated that the typical
Brit charges their smartphones for 2
hours 40 minutes a day, which over a
year costs just 85p on average (at least
until the price cap rises again in October).Laptops on average are charged for seven
hours a day, five days a week, costing an
annual average of £12.26. USwitch says
those prices make the UK the 10th most
expensive country in the world. Denmark,
Germany and Belgium are the three
priciest (see http://www.snipca.com/41788).When you’re returning home, Hive’s app will
tell you if your heating is below your preferred
temperatureIssue 631 • 11 – 24 May 2022Control your smart
plugs through your
phone using TP-Link’s
Kasa Power Strip