Bringing down my gas and leccy bill challenge (start August 2008)

Magentasue

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

can someone help me with the maths on this please.

i won an urn style kettle its supposed to be left on all the time it heats the watr to boiling then stays on tick over so that you constantly have hot water. ive started turning it off at night and leaving DH a note to remind him to switch it on before he goes to the papershop in the morning so hes got hot water for his cuppa. anyway last night i said i could fill a flask to use during the day and trun it off to save it being on all the time.
ive just looked on the back and its 700w is it expensive to run does anyne know?
Im not being lazy i just havent got a clue how to do it myself

Check this out:

http://www.cactus2000.de/uk/unit/massstr.shtml

It's brilliant! According to my calculation, it costs about £2 a day if you are paying about 12p per unit.

Susi_Coben

Do you know if it cost effective to turn off applicances i.e. computers, when not in use or to leave them on. I sometimes wonder if restarting uses more energy than leaving on?

Susi

[Deleted User]

700watts on my ebico rate costs 8.9 pence an hour to run mrs M but that is when heating at full pelt. You could do with borrowing an energy meter to put in the wall to get accurate costs as the urn powers down to keep warm. Either way it is expensive when it costs <1p to boil water in a kettle to make tea for two

[Deleted User]

DW doing a wash at 50 cost almost 15p per wash at my ebico rate. Plus about 4p for water at 0.13p/litre plus the cost of a wash tab or powder. I stopped using my dw every day

Magentasue

Susi_Coben wrote: »

Do you know if it cost effective to turn off applicances i.e. computers, when not in use or to leave them on. I sometimes wonder if restarting uses more energy than leaving on?

Susi

According to this, turn off monitor if it'll be off for more than 20mins, shut down if off for more than two hours. My laptop is on all day when I'm home

[Deleted User]

fridge safe temp must be under 8 degrees. I bought a thermometer and tweaked my thermostat higher and motor is now running less

mrs-moneypenny

Magentasue wrote: »

Check this out:

http://www.cactus2000.de/uk/unit/massstr.shtml

It's brilliant! According to my calculation, it costs about £2 a day if you are paying about 12p per unit.

:eek: thanks for that, im paying 8.348 per unit in the day time so its costing £1.40 a day, that means by my calculations its costing me £511 a year if i leave it on 24/7:mad: . no wonder i got the letter saying my usage had gone up more than they'd estimated. I think ill be looking for a new kettle;)

thanks for your comment as well kittie, it was also very helpful

newlywed

kittie wrote: »

DW doing a wash at 50 cost almost 15p per wash at my ebico rate. Plus about 4p for water at 0.13p/litre plus the cost of a wash tab or powder. I stopped using my dw every day

Yeah thing is, I work full time, come home and cook and would willingly pay someone 22p to do the washing up for me (Aldi d/w tablets work out 7p each) - this way it's less moaning from OH or the kids as 22p wouldn't be a big enough bribe for them !!! We're not on a water meter though.

Have been using it a bit less than usual though. Will have to start keeping track of how many loads I do a week and keep a check on it.


How much does a fridge thermometer cost? Where do I get one?

Thought about turning the cooker off at the plug but it's so annoying that you have to reset the clock time before you can use it, after switching it back on Might check out my meal plans and see if there are a few days that I'm not likely to use it and find out how annoying it really is.

Andy_Hamilton

For all those who have tried energy saving bulbs and not liked them in the past, please try a newer type. There are instant bulbs like http://www.screwfix.com/prods/49573/Lighting/Energy-Saving-Lamps/Bayonet-Clip-Lamps/Sylvania-Mini-Lynx-CFL-Stick-Fast-Start-BC-20W-Pack-of-3
About 10 years ago we tried them and it took a good 2-3 minutes to warm up fully. The instant ones give out 95% power on switch on and softern the colour in about 1 minute. Philips bulbs found in lidl are almost as good but cost under £1 each.

I have a 5 GU10 light fitting in my kitchen. That was pulling a total of 250W. I tried LED's and they were not bright enough. I left 2 LED's dropping the power down to around 102W.
Last week I installed 3 energy saving 8W bulbs from B&Q. They are an old style bulb and take around 2 minutes to warm up fully. When I turn on the light I get around 50% total light. After about 1 minute its brighter than I really need. My total lighting is now 26W and the colours are much nicer than halogens.

Magentasue

newlywed wrote: »

Yeah thing is, I work full time, come home and cook and would willingly pay someone 22p to do the washing up for me (Aldi d/w tablets work out 7p each) - this way it's less moaning from OH or the kids as 22p wouldn't be a big enough bribe for them !!! We're not on a water meter though.

Have been using it a bit less than usual though. Will have to start keeping track of how many loads I do a week and keep a check on it.

I work part-time, have school holidays off and still don't want to wash up! I think it's less than a penny to fill a washing up bowl so even if I did several lots, it makes the dishwasher the expensive option. Also, we're on a water meter.
At the moment, I want to cut waste rather than things that genuinely make life easier.