Kitchen appliances
The Energy Saving Trust Recommended label can help you choose the most energy efficient kitchen appliances. All you need need to do is look for the label next time you buy one of these products. It’s your guarantee that the product you’re buying is the most energy efficient on the market, helping you to save money and energy. You'll find details of all the Energy Saving Trust Recommended models in our Product Search.
To save even more energy, run full loads rather than half loads in dishwashers, tumble dryers and washing machines: half loads use more than half the energy. And turn appliances off when you've finished using them - £1 billion worth of energy is wasted in the UK every year by appliances left on standby.
Cookers, ovens and hobs
Switching your old cooker to an Energy Saving Trust Recommended model over the market average model could save you around £43 over its lifetime. Cookers are getting more efficient, and our recommended ovens have an 'A' energy rating so they are the most efficient of all; hobs that carry the logo are highly energy-efficient too.
Smarter energy use
When using your oven, try to open the oven door as little as often as this lets the hot air escape. Ensure that the door of you oven is kept clean so you can check how your food is doing without opening the door. Microwave ovens are often a much more energy efficient way of cooking items than in the oven. This is because microwaves oven use energy to directly heat your food, whereas electric ovens must also heat the air inside the oven.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended cookers, ovens and hobs.
Read the full Energy Saving Trust Recommended manufacturers' criteria for cookers, ovens and hobs.
Dishwashers
Pay less for clean dishes. A dishwasher can take up a significant chunk of your electricity bill, costing on average around £48 a year to run. Over a year, it costs around £7 less to run an Energy Saving Trust Recommended dishwasher than it does an old, inefficient machine - and it will use less water.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended dishwashers.
Read the full Energy Saving Trust Recommended manufacturers' criteria for dishwashers.
Smarter energy and water use
Always try to wash a full load. This means having to put the dishwasher on less often. Although many dishwashers come with a half load setting, these usually uses more than half the energy of a full load; so if you do two half loads you'll use more energy than doing one full one.
See if you can save on your water and energy bill.
Fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers
Your fridge and freezer are switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so it's well worth finding models that are energy efficient. Choosing a new ESTR Fridge Freezer over the market average will save you around £86 in energy bills and 410 kg of CO2 over the lifetime of the product.
Look for the right size and the Logo
Energy Saving Trust Recommended refrigeration appliances must all have an A+ or A++ energy rating. However because the energy rating is based upon classification by size, a smaller A rated fridge could use less energy than a larger A+ rated fridge. You can compare the total energy consumption of appliances by looking for their yearly energy consumption in kWh / annum displayed on the bottom right of its energy label.
Using your cold appliances efficiently
You could shave a few extra pounds off your energy bill by keeping your refrigerator in a cooler part of your home, ie out of direct sunlight and away from radiators, and by not setting the refrigeration control to the coolest temperature. In the interest of food safety and energy efficiency do not put warm food in either your fridge or freezer until it has cooled down to at least room temperature.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended fridges and freezers.
Read the full Energy Saving Trust Recommended manufacturers' criteria for fridges; for freezers; and for fridge-freezers.
Kettles
Kettles are one of the most commonly used appliances in the kitchen. The strict testing for Energy Saving Trust Recommended kettles requires them to use 20% less energy than the average product. On average a UK household boils the kettle 1,500 times a year. If everyone in the UK boiled only the water they needed every time they used the kettle, we could save enough electricity in a year to power the UK's street lights for 2 months.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended kettles.
Smarter energy and water use
Even if you do not have an Energy Saving Recommended Kettle you can still save energy by not overfilling your kettle but only boiling the amount you require each time you use the kettle.
Tumble dryers
Drying clothes outdoors on a washing line or indoors on a rack costs nothing and uses no energy so it is the ideal way to dry your clothes. But if you need to use a tumble dryer, they use a great deal of energy, so choose one with the Energy Saving Trust Recommended label:
- It will cost less to run, helping you to reduce your energy bill and fight climate change.
- It will have a sensor that tells when your clothes are dry enough, preventing your clothes from being over dried and the dryer running when it doesn’t need to.
Gas tumble driers are one of the cheapest and most environmentally friendly type of drier to run. However these types of driers can be slightly more expensive to install as the need a gas connection. Electric heat pump tumble driers are also very efficient as they “recycle” the heat leaving the driers ventilation tube back into the drier, but take away the water vapour from the air.
Smarter energy use
Spin dry your clothes well before putting them in the dryer.
It uses much less energy to get moisture out of your clothes by through spin drying than tumble drying. Ensure that the spin setting on your washing machine is set to its highest speed.
Keep your dryer in a warm well ventilated area.
Your dryer takes in air from the surroundings and heats it up to dry your clothes. If your tumble dryer is in a cold garage or utility room, or in an already damp area your dryer will need more energy to heat this air up for drying.
Unfold and separate clothes.
Ensuring that your clothes can move about more freely in the drier, will mean will expose them more readily to the surrounding warm air in the drier, helping to make evaporation of moisture more efficient.
Use the sensor
If you have a tumble drier with a sensor, you can prevent ‘over drying’ your clothes by using the sensor. Many have an iron dry setting, which leaves a small amount of moisture in your clothes, to make ironing cotton items much easier.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended tumble dryers.
Read the full Energy Saving Trust Recommended manufacturers' criteria for electric tumble dryers and gas tumble dryers.
Washing machines
An energy efficient machine will save you money on to your electricity bill and, if you have a meter, your water bill too. All our recommended washing machines are rated the best in class for energy efficiency, spin efficiency and wash performance.
Save energy by washing your clothes, except the dirtiest clothes, at lower temperatures. Washing powders and detergents work just as effectively. Try to fill the machine: two half loads use more energy than one full one. And don't forget to save energy by switching your washing machine off when you've finished using it.
Look for Energy Saving Trust Recommended washing machines.
Read the full Energy Saving Trust Recommended manufacturers' criteria for washing machines.
