It’s that time of year again. The evenings are drawing in, and the annual reminder that colder weather means higher bills is back.
From 1 October, Ofgem’s price cap rises 4 percent, adding £60 a year to take the typical dual-fuel household bill to £1,723, with electricity priced at 26.32p per kWh and gas at 7.97p per kWh. That’s a long way down from the crisis peaks of a few winters ago, but energy still isn’t cheap, and it’s worth knowing which household devices actually help to reduce costs, and which just feel like they should.
Some of the most energy-hungry appliances in a typical home aren’t the obvious ones, and a few smaller, targeted devices can do the job of heating a person, drying a room, or cooking a meal for a fraction of what running the whole system costs.
This article explores five items worth digging out of storage (or investing in for the first time) this winter, and roughly what each one costs to run at current prices.
1. Heated throws (to keep you warm)
Turning the thermostat up warms an entire house, even the rooms nobody’s sitting in. A heated throw only warms you, which is the logic behind Martin Lewis and the Money Saving Expert team’s now well-known advice to “heat the human, not the home.” A typical 100W throw costs in the region of 2.5p to 3p an hour to run at current electricity prices, considerably less than heating a whole room, let alone a whole house, to keep one person comfortable on the sofa. Most decent throws offer several heat settings, so it’s worth choosing one with enough range to actually feel the difference on a cold evening rather than just taking the edge off.
2. Portable heaters (for the room you’re in)
The same logic applies at a slightly larger scale: heating one room rather than the whole house. Oil-filled radiators are worth particular attention here, because the oil inside retains heat, so the radiator keeps giving off warmth for a while after the element switches off, rather than cooling instantly like a fan heater does. As an example, Pro Breeze’s oil-filled radiator heaters are built around that principle. At 26.32p per kWh, a 2500W model costs somewhere around 66p an hour running flat out, though in practice it draws less once the room’s up to temperature and the thermostat starts cycling, so real-world running costs tend to come in lower than that ceiling figure. Still meaningfully cheaper than warming rooms you’re not using.
3. Electric blankets (for overnight warmth)
Running central heating overnight to keep a bedroom warm has never made much sense, and it makes even less now. An electric blanket solves the same problem for a fraction of the cost, typically running at somewhere under 3p an hour, so a full night’s use costs pennies rather than pounds. Look for one with multiple heat settings and a genuine overheat protection feature, both make a real difference to comfort and peace of mind, particularly if you tend to fall asleep with it still on.
4. Air fryers over ovens
Air fryers remain one of the most-bought kitchen appliances of the last few years, and the appeal is straightforward: they cook faster than a conventional oven and use less energy doing it. Current estimates put a compact air fryer at roughly 21p to 52p an hour to run, a larger model at 47p to 73p an hour, against an electric oven at 52p to as much as £1.31 an hour, so an air fryer usually beats an electric oven comfortably. It’s worth knowing that because gas is now so much cheaper relative to electricity than it was a few winters ago, a gas oven is typically cheaper to run than an air fryer, even though the air fryer still wins against an electric one. Which appliance actually saves you money now depends on what you’re comparing it to, not just on switching to the trendier option.
5. Dehumidifiers to tackle damp, mould and laundry
Cold weather brings a second problem alongside heating costs: condensation, poor ventilation and the conditions mould needs to take hold, plus the usual headache of drying laundry without reaching for a tumble dryer or the central heating. A dehumidifier addresses both at once. Pro Breeze’s 20L dehumidifier, for example, is built with a dedicated laundry mode alongside its main job of pulling moisture out of the air, and runs at under 10p an hour, cheap enough to leave running through a laundry cycle or overnight without worrying about the cost. For a device that can head off a much more expensive mould problem later, it’s one of the better value additions to a home this time of year.
Staying Spend-Savvy This Winter
None of these devices replace a well-insulated, well-heated home, but each one solves a specific version of the same problem: warming a person instead of a house, heating one room instead of all of them, or cooking and drying more efficiently than the default appliance. Layered together, they’re a genuinely useful way to bring a bill down without spending the whole winter cold.
© Copyright 2026 Antonia, All rights Reserved. Written For: Tidylife
