Insurance provider Row.co.uk has commissioned new research, which shows that the Brits are truly gadget obsessed, with spending on smartphones and tablets sky rocketing. 9 out of 10 adults today own a mobile and two thirds of them have more power-hungry smartphones, according to Ofcom, the communications regulator.

This is costing the equivalent of £33 per year for each household in the UK, and much of it is wasted energy as devices are charged overnight, often reaching a fully charged state long before they are disconnected again in the morning. Tests carried out by researchers from the Berkley Lab at the University of California found that a fully charged phone continued to draw 66% of the power it consumed while charging.

Analysis of figures from the Department of Energy, commissioned by Row, shows that UK households now use the same amount of power to charge up these gadgets at home as the power needed for all laptop and desktop computers, and printers. Despite this, phones and tablets are much less power-hungry by design than laptops and desktops.

The total bill of £903 million makes charging gadgets one of the biggest areas of electricity consumption for household appliances. Britain only spends more on running its TVs, fridges and washing machines.