Many of us will be feeling the financial pinch of higeher bills in the winter months ahead.

Switching off a number of common household appliances may help to reduce your energy bill.

It’s easy to leave things plugged in or on standby, but switching them off might save money, as they can continue to use electricity if still plugged into the wall.

Here are seven tips to save money on your energy bill - including switching these appliances off.

Chargers

Although some people may leave devices such as their mobile phones plugged in to charge through the night, it’s advised to unplug a charger from the wall once your device reaches 100%.

TVs, computers and other appliances

Leaving appliances on standby will usually mean the monitor is off, but the red standby light shows it’s still using your power and contributing to your bills.

When you’ve finished using a device, make sure you turn them off at the main instead of putting them on standby.

Appliances that have low standby power usage are also available to buy, which will help to keep costs down if you do forget to switch them off.

Lights and lamps

Make sure you turn your lights off every time you leave a room to make sure you’re not wasting energy.

You can install energy-saving light bulbs to further reduce costs and having lights on a dimmer switch will also reduce your bills.

Heating

Using a smart home system to allow you to only heat the rooms that are in use, instead of the whole house, can help save energy and reduce costs.

Dishwasher

Turning off the heated drying system on your dishwasher, which heats the air it produces to dry the dishes during the cycle, can also help to save costs.

Instead, you could leave your pots and pans to air dry.

Air conditioning

Although not all households will have air conditioning, if you do then you should make sure to turn it off when you’re not using it.

Using fans instead of air conditioning to cool a room down will also save costs.

Leaky taps

Leaving a tap to drip will mean a rise in costs and wasted water. A hot water tap left dripping could add hundreds to your gas bill, so making sure taps are tightly turned off, or fixing a leaky tap, can help reduce bills.