Brits urged to check hidden ‘vampire settings’ in your house that could be costing you hundreds

It may be getting warmer but it's never too late to try and cut down on bill prices around the house.

The increases in cost of living and house bills will always be a headache, and it's not as easy as putting the heating on to solve your problems anymore.

But not to fear, there are several ways to cut costs here and there.

There are things called 'vampire settings' in your house that could be adding a hefty amount onto your bills that you may not know about - so they're worth checking.

So without further ado, here are the things you should check to avoid falling victim to this:

Radiator

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It may seem pretty obvious, but the radiator is a pretty big culprit of draining energy.

British Gas state that with a thermostatic radiator valve fitted to radiators at home could save the average household up to £75 each year.

Pretty decent if I say so myself.

This is because you can limit and stop the flow of hot water into the radiator, therefore reducing how much gas your boiler needs to burn.

You can typically pick up a thermostatic radiator valve from hardware stores and online from around a fiver.

Dishwasher

According to Compare the Market, the average dishwasher uses between 1.2kWh and 1.5kWh per load, and the typical setting is usually between 55ºC and 65ºC.

However, if you drop it down to an eco-wash, this temperature will drop and is therefore generally cheaper to wash your dishes at.

Heating in your home

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This is another biggie. Energy Saving Trust say that turning the temperature down on the thermostat by even just one degree can reduce your bill by 10 percent.

The NHS also recommend heating rooms you regularly use to at least 18 °C, so you can save some pennies if you’ve been whacking it up to a sauna.

Fridge-freezer

Talking about the cold, your fridge-freezer could be another hidden vampire.

The Food Standards Agency recommend that fridges should be sitting at 5°C and freezers at -18 °C.

So if you’ve got them any different to its optimum temperature, then it won’t be running as efficiently, and therefore could be costing you more cash.

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Phone

And one final vampire could be your own phone and its constant need to be charged.

There’s a feature on iPhone that could be a ‘vampire’ to your battery... the Wi-Fi assist.

This basically fills in the gaps when your Wi-Fi gets slow or laggy and uses up your battery, meaning you need to use the electricity to charge it more often.

So if you want to go without, you can simply switch it off in your settings.

Or there's another battery feature lurking in your settings that could also help, too.

Hopefully checking for some of these annoying ‘vampires’ in your home will help save some pennies this winter.

Topics: Cost of Living, UK News, Money

Joshua Nair

Joshua Nair is a journalist at LADbible. Born in Malaysia and raised in Dubai, he has always been interested in writing about a range of subjects, from sports to trending pop culture news. After graduating from Oxford Brookes University with a BA in Media, Journalism and Publishing, he got a job freelance writing for SPORTbible while working in marketing before landing a full-time role at LADbible. Unfortunately, he's unhealthily obsessed with Manchester United, which takes its toll on his mental and physical health. Daily.

@joshnair10