Pet owners spend more than $400 to keep their pets warm during winter but this one thing can slash your bill

Pet ownership can sure be expensive, what with food, toys, trips to the vet and the like.

But winter can also bring its own special pet-related costs, with new research showing energy costs can skyrocket if you have a pet.

New analysis from Green.com.au revealed pet owners are researching heaters to keep their pets warm at night, but warned the trend could add up to $441 to a household's power bill over winter.

READ MORE: 'Not fair': Dog issue Australia is 'behind the times' on

Green.com.au provides solar panels, solar inverters and solar batteries to homes and businesses across Australia.

It pointed to Google trends that showed a sharp spike in searches for 'pet heater' during June, which marked the start of winter in Australia.

Green.com.au said running a standard 2000 watt portable heater for eight hours a night on the maximum setting could chew through up to 16 kilowatt-hour of electricity per day when run on the maximum setting for eight hours.

At 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, that's $4.80 a day, or $441 over winter.

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Dave Green is an energy expert at Green.com.au. He said many Aussies were unknowingly burning through cash running expensive heating during winter.

"If you're heating an entire room for one small animal, especially without a thermostat or timer, chances are you're paying far more than you need to," he said.

"People don't connect the dots. They want to do the right thing for their pet, but one overnight heater can quietly add hundreds to your winter bill."

Green said investing in a pet heater pad was much more energy-efficient and therefore economical, as they cost as little as $10 a month to run.

"That's a huge saving over a single winter," he said.

And he said Aussies were beginning to catch on to the trend, with Google searches for 'pet heater pad' and 'heated pet bed' surging, with the latter up 60 per cent in recent weeks.

Leading vet Katrina Warren told 9honey Pets that dogs and cats in Australia can struggle with the cold, especially if they have shorter coats or lower body fat.

Senior and smaller breeds of dogs also find it harder to regulate their body temperature in extreme cold, leaving them at risk of hypothermia and even frostbite.

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She said pet heating pads were a safe alternative to keeping pets warm in winter, and were much safer than heating pads for humans, that could be too hot, or regular heaters, which could cause burn injuries to pets.

Pet heating pads are selling for as little as $9.99 on eBay.

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