Unplugging chargers, switching off at the wall, turning the router off at night and worrying about LED lighting. Together they are worth a few pounds a year at most.
- Phone chargers left plugged in draw a fraction of a watt. Leaving one in for a year costs a few pence.
- Standby on modern appliances is legally capped at very low levels. The exception is old equipment and anything with a big transformer.
- Turning the router off overnight saves pennies and means your devices spend the morning reconnecting.
- LED lighting is already so cheap to run that the remaining saving is negligible. If you still have halogen spotlights, changing those is worth it.
- Where the money actually is: the thermostat, the hot water, the tumble dryer and draughts.
Be careful about advice that recommends spending money to save energy. Work out the payback period first: a lot of products marketed as energy savers never repay their own cost.
Advice that costs nothing and feels virtuous spreads easily, whether or not it does anything. The test is always kilowatts multiplied by hours, and that test dismisses most of it in ten seconds.
Energy figures are worked from the Ofgem price cap on the date shown and from typical power for the appliance class, not from a named model. Your own rate and your own rating plate are the ones that count. Full disclaimer.