Those with a smart speaker who use it at least once a day face charges of just over £7 a year from April 1. Ofgem is lowering the energy price cap from that date, meaning Brits will pay less per year for their energy.

The energy authority has said that households on a standard variable tariff (default tariff) who pay for their electricity by Direct Debit will now pay on average 24.67 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh). Smart speakers (such as the Amazon Echo, Google Nest, and Apple HomePod) are voice-activated, internet-connected devices with built-in virtual assistants (such as Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri) that act as home hubs.

They enable hands-free music streaming, smart home device control, setting timers, checking news and answering questions. According to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute, a smart speaker device uses up to approximately three watts an hour when idle and up to 10 watts an hour when actively playing music.

But how expensive are these devices to use? We have done some calculations to help you figure out how much you can expect to pay if you use a smart speaker to play music for an hour a day.

The one hour a day playing music will use up to 10 watts, and the 23 hours of idle time will use 69 watts. At the new Ofgem price of 24.67p per kilowatt hour, this will cost just under 2p a day.

At this same price, smart speakers will, on average, cost just £7.11 per year to run after April 1. These prices can change depending on the speaker.

Here is a more detailed breakdown, based on a formula provided by energy experts Bluetti:

The wattage is multiplied by the hours used and divided by 1,000. This brings us to 0.079Wh. This, multiplied by the new average hourly cost, is 1.95p.

If you use your smart speaker for this amount of time every day throughout the year, you would multiply this single-use cost by 365. This brings us to an annual price of £7.11.