Households face £24 kettle charge from April as ‘tea tax’ warning issued | Personal Finance | Finance
Households will face a new charge for their kettle from April (Image: Getty)
Households with water heaters can expect lower running costs from April thanks to the new energy price cap. But experts have urged Brits to adopt some money-saving tips as kettles still consume a lot of energy and are often one of the most used appliances, resulting in a noticeable reduction in bills.
With electricity unit prices falling from around 3p per kilowatt hour (kWh) to 24.67p, each device will cost slightly less to run. When you add up the savings across your gadgets, it all starts to add up. A typical household can save around £3 a year on boiling water alone.
If you boil a 2kWh kettle for a few minutes four times a day, that works out to 7p a day, £2 a month and £24.04 a year. Smart Money Tools.
Read more: Households with toasters will face £9 charge from April
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Under the previous price cap, where electricity was 27.69p per kWh, the same eight minutes would have cost around £2.25 per month and £26.99 per year; This meant households could save around £3 on the kettle alone.
But if you constantly boil your kettle when it’s full, it could take four minutes each time, according to the calculator, which doubles to £47.99 per year.
Experts warn that this is one of the most expensive devices. By comparison, a modest toaster would cost around £9.01 a year, as the average home appliance uses around six minutes a day, according to the money medium.
“People don’t think twice about turning the kettle on, but it’s something we do several times each day and that’s where the cost adds up,” said kitchen expert Olivia Disley. Prestige.
“Because kettles are high-power devices, even a few minutes of use adds up quickly when repeated throughout the day.
“Despite energy prices falling slightly since April, habits such as overcharging or reboiling mean households can still spend much more than they need.”
To cut kettle costs and avoid the “tea tax”, he recommended boiling only the water you need, descaling it regularly and avoiding re-boiling.
He explained that overfilling and scaling causes kettles to use more electricity, while unnecessary reboiling wastes energy every time.
The price change will come into force after Ofgem lowers the energy price cap by around £117 from 1 April to 30 June compared with the first three months of the year.
It will be set at £1,641 per year for a “typical household” who pays both electricity and gas costs via Direct Debit. Comparing January to March, we see that the ceiling is much higher at £1,758.
