The Energy Saving Trust is promoting Energy Saving Week from the 24th to 28th October 2011 to help you save energy and money in your home. Energy prices this year have gone up by 18% making heating and lighting your home this winter a worry for many.

But don’t fret, at Appliances Online we love a good money saving tip, so we’ve got some great ideas to help you cut the cost of your bills from your kitchen.

Some of the best ways to save cash with your kitchen appliances can be done for free and take very little time to implement.

Got five minutes to spare?

1. Leaving your washing machine and tumble dryer on standby wastes 7kwh of energy every day, that’s the equivalent of enough energy to power 5 light bulbs for 24 hours. So spend five minutes every evening walking around the kitchen and turning off any appliances which are on standby to save cash.
2. Don’t stack items on top of your fridge or freezer. This hinders the appliance’s ability to ventilate properly and makes the appliance warmer. The compressor then has to work harder to keep the appliance cool which costs you more.
3. Don’t open your oven when you’re cooking because the heat, and therefore energy, will escape – it’s the equivalent spilling money out onto the kitchen floor. Instead, just have a peek through the oven door to see how your food is getting on.
4. Use pans which are the same size as your gas burners. Using a small pan on a big hob wastes energy, as heat can escape up the sides.
5. Don’t rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher - it wastes water. Dishwashers are built to deal with even the most burnt on mess.

And when it comes to replacing your appliances look for the Energy Saving Trust logo! A new efficient fridge freezer can save you around £280 over its lifespan compared with a 10 year old model so it’s really worthwhile.

If you have any money saving tips of your own, feel free to ask us in the comments section below, or visit the Energy Saving Trust.

There’s exciting news afoot at Appliances Online. We’re joining forces with Next Day Appliances to spread our great service to even more customers.

By teaming up with Next Day Appliances we’re able to offer even more white good seekers the chance to benefit from our helpful advice section and make an informed decision on their purchases.

Next Day Appliance customers can now benefit from a wealth of informative videos and product descriptions across the Appliances Online website to make sure you’re getting the most out of your new appliances.

But don’t worry - you’ll still be able to get next day delivery on your appliances. At Appliances Online we offer a huge range of laundry, cooking and cooling products for next day delivery so if your cooker goes bust the day before your dinner party, we can help you get your meal on the table.

We also offer free delivery seven days a week – you don’t pay anything, even if you need a weekend delivery.

Plus, because we know how busy you are and sometimes you don’t want to wait around all day, we offer 4 or 5 hour time slots for just £9.99.

No doubt you have all heard about the outstanding new Ecobubble washing machine technology from Samsung which can operate at 15°C and still give you the same great wash results as a standard 40°C cycle, whilst using 70% less energy! It does this by using the power of bubbles to help your clothes absorb detergent 40 times faster, so it can start removing stains immediately.

But what you probably don’t know is that Samsung Ecobubble models such as the 12kg WF1124XAC washing machine come with many more equally fantastic benefits. It offers the innovative VRT™ which stands for Vibration Reduction Technology and is designed to significantly reduce the amount of vibration in the washing machine during the wash and spin phases of each cycle. It does this by using a ball balancing system to ensure the drum remains balanced, as loads can often become lopsided, particularly if you’re not washing a full load.

This makes certain your load is kept steady throughout the wash cycle therefore reducing vibration and movement. Less vibration means less noise and guarantees longer durability, even at high spin speeds, you will hardly know this machine is running. Perfect if you have an open plan living area, or like to run your machine over night when energy costs are a bit less.

The WF1124XAC also uses a double coated anti-lime scale heater, this is the ultimate protection against the build-up of water scale deposit, as it makes the heater less porous. Samsung are so confident in this technology, they guarantee their washing machine water heaters for 10 years! Reducing lime scale has a number of benefits; it allows you to save up to 25% of the amount of detergent you use by reducing the effects of hard water, therefore saving you money. Hard water is water that has a lot of minerals dissolved in it (such as calcium and magnesium salts) from the rocks and earth in the area where the water is collected.

It very much depends on where you live as to how hard your water is, and although all the extra minerals in hard water are great for your health, it’s not so good for your washing machine water heater as the build up of lime scale causes the element to overheat. The double ceramic coating, prevents this from happening and stops deposits clogging up the pipe work, overall tripling the durability of your machine!

Glen Dimplex are best known for their appliance brands Newworld, Belling and Stoves, and for the quality British engineering they put into their products. In fact the Glen Dimplex family is the only manufacturer to build the majority of its products here in the UK. To find out exactly how Glen Dimplex create their Best of British appliances we visited their head office and manufacturing plant. And here’s what we found...

Showcasing the best and brightest that this family of brands had to offer, it was clear that the people at Glen Dimplex really love the hands on approach. Holding up to even the most technical questions we could think of, we felt a genuine sense of pride from the manufacturer - they really are appliance experts. They have a real passion for their British heritage, but from the shop floor to the sales room the main message was always that the customer comes first.

So after attempting to exhaust their product knowledge, we put in our earplugs and embarked on a tour of the factory to see, with our own eyes, this quality engineering and customer focus in practice.

The Glen Dimplex factory tour
This was the first time most of us had been into an appliance manufacturing factory and the amount of ingenuity exercised in the plant was overwhelming. My personal highlight was seeing the enamelling process from start to finish.

We were shown the secret ingredients that make up Glen Dimplex’s own special recipe for Pristine enamel. They let us see how it was pounded, mixed and sprayed onto the necessary components, then fired in the huge furnaces. The transformation is fantastic and seeing it first hand, from start to finish really is a privilege.

But here’s the most important thing we learned from Glen Dimplex...whether it’s a thousand pound range cooker or a value first time appliance, every cooking cavity and appliance they make uses exactly the same quality of high glass content enamel. It means that not only will it be more efficient at keeping the heat where it belongs, but it makes grease and dirt so much easier to clean off. Looks beautiful too!

It was on entering the product testing department that the pure commitment to quality really hit home. Having just seen the very same appliances assembled and checked moments before, we saw how Glen Dimplex randomly took appliances from the production line and tested them over a period of time to truly confirm their quality. It was wonderful to see the level of dedication and craftsmanship that went into making these appliances and I think it’s safe to say, we were all officially impressed!

Please welcome this week's guest blogger, Leila Arfa, who we sent to the London Taste Festival, courtesy of AEG...

“As an Edinburgh-based blogger and foodphile, to say that I look forward to the annual Taste of Edinburgh festival is an understatement.  This year we knew to expect a few changes, namely the venue, which was back in its original Meadows location, a few Glasgow restaurants were participating (GASP!) and there was a new principal sponsor in the form of AEG. The latter had given away some VIP tickets to the good folks at Appliances Online, who in turn (very generously, I may add) decided to pass these golden tickets on to a few lucky people. I’m delighted to say I was one of them!

The weather forecast was good - unbelievably good- and  so after the obligatory met office checks, my mum and I headed up for the Saturday session to check it all out; sunglasses on! First stop was the AEG'S PERFEKT Cook Classes tent, this year run by Martin Wishart Cook School. There were four recipes and sessions to pick from that evening, and we opted for the 7pm ‘scallops’ one which would give us a chance to swing by AEG’s swanky mobile show unit first. We met with the PR girls who offered us a show around and a much appreciated glass of Champagne. The showroom is a Transformers-esque genius bit of engineering starting out life as a regular truck, It features loads of the very shiny new induction hobs, steam ovens, silent dishwashers & washing machines, and futuristic-looking extractor systems.

I was given a complimentary wodge of Crowns (the festival’s currency for buying restaurant dishes, food products from suppliers, and drinks) and mum and I were on our way. As is apt, given the festival’s title, we tried some extremely tasty dishes. This included Cucina Missoni’s excellent ‘al dente’ ravioli with spinach and ricotta, a simple dish yet with high expectations that some struggle to get right with a full kitchen, never mind the mini taste kitchens! We did the tour and also tried Chez Rouz’s  tender Chicken Ballontine, Retaurant Mark Greenaway’s duo of Borders Lamb, and VinCaffè’s moreish porcini mushroom risotto.

We swung by the VIP tent to pick up our glass of Laurent-Perrier (as you do!) and then made our way to get prepped at the Cook School. Hands washed, aprons donned, and we were ready to go. The whole set up is designed for pairs to work as a team, and the end product dished up to share. All of the ingredients (supplied by Waitrose) for the seared scallops with apple and endive salad were neatly lined up, along with the required selection of utensils, knives and of course the AEG induction hob which we would use to cook the scallops.

Chef talked us through the various steps of the recipe ( separating the scallops from their shell, chopping the fruit, endive and toasted almonds, making the dressing) and the final step was to cook the scallops. This was mum’s first shot using the induction hobs, and she was definitely impressed by the simple controls; high praise from a self-confessed gas hob fan. The proof is always in the eating, and we promptly scoffed our handiwork with self-congratulatory enthusiasm.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering around the producers’ stalls, and it was a good move to have the Edinburgh’s Farmers Market participants in one area this year. Lots of wee samples here and there, a couple of drinks, and a few more dishes from the participating restaurants. What can I say? It was perfect evening for a foodie like me. Thanks folks!”

Leila Arfa is the voice behind www.leilappetit.blogspot.com , and you can find her on Twitter @LeilAppetit