23 October 2023 , 16:00
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Vampire devices, the name given to popular household appliances that guzzle energy without you knowing, whether it's the TV left on standby, the coffee machine, or a night light. These silent pieces of tech can add to your yearly bill.
Smart features on some plug-in appliances, like the light on a microwave (although may look good) can be the biggest culprit in adding to energy costs, even when they're not being used. To add to this, research shared with The Mirror from ValueLights shows that leaving just one 100W bulb on overnight can add as much as £89 a year to your energy bill... imagine if you added up the amount for all the devices you left on.
That's where the Tapo Smart Plugs come in and the £15 duo pack bill payers are raving about, as it helps reduce unnecessary tech costs around the house. It's as simple as plugging in and connecting to the app, where users can track the exact spending of each device. And two of these money-saving gadgets are currently cut to just £15 for two, reduced from £27.99.
On top of that the simple-looking plugs have a feature that stamps out the pricey mistake of leaving devices on overnight or running for longer than they should be. You can set up times with a switch of an app button, which many reviewers on Amazon are raving about.
As one recent buyer said: "Oh my…..this is what you need if you want to be able to remotely control something and monitor the energy consumption. Simple to set up (through the app) and works perfectly. Got some very surprising data, what I thought had high energy consumption was in fact low and what I thought was low turned out to be high."
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The plugs come with an integrated app, that allows users to monitor usage and help save money (Harriet Morphy-Morris)While a lot of reviews praised the ease of setting timers for devices to come on while out of the house, a lot of recent buyers took to the comments to say it was helping cut their costs. One person commented: "We now have around 6 of these little gems dotted around the house used on various appliances to see what energy they are using and how we can save a little money.
"They work so well that we have been able to identify that our under-counter fridge has actually broken (never stops running), so this has already paid for itself in the electricity we will be now saving on the new fridge!"
If you're intrigued but not exactly sure how to set up these smart plugs around your house, then you can take a look at our review, where we monitor the energy usage of a TV and dehumidifier - and the numbers are shocking.
Amazon is also selling a different four pack of smart plugs for £19:99.