How much electricity???

milliemonster

do you use if you have an appliance (such as a toaster, kettle, microwave etc) plugged in and switched on at the socket but not in use (ie not on standby like a TV)

I only ask because in an effort to reduce my electric bills I am switching everything off overnight (including TV and DVD at the socket (never leave them on standby anyway), but hubby says it doesn't really save anything

phildamb

the likes of a kettle or toaster turned on at the mains but not in use should use nothing. A microwave may use a little as they generally (newish ones) have a display which takes power.

milliemonster

that's great, my microwave does have a clock on it, which is not an issue as such as I have a watch but if the clock is not set you can't use it so it would have to be reset each time I would switch it back on!, what about the likes of the Sky box and DVD player etc?

phildamb

milliemonster wrote: »

that's great, my microwave does have a clock on it, which is not an issue as such as I have a watch but if the clock is not set you can't use it so it would have to be reset each time I would switch it back on!, what about the likes of the Sky box and DVD player etc?

Well your DVD player I would just unplug then it uses nothing. It is a case that individually they use a tiny amount of power its more when you have lots of devices on standby it may start to add up. Your sky box on standby will use some power but not much. Its just a case that every bit helps. I tend to turn off everything apart from the fridge and freezer when Im not home, dont see a point in any device using power when it isnt needed and so far my quarterly bill has been £45 for electricity.

milliemonster

You see, this is the thing, we leave nothing on standby, the only electrical items that are on all the time are my laptop for work, the fridge and freezer, and my alarm clock but our electric bill from moving in on March 14th this year until 15th August was £350!, our hot water is heated by oil I have an electric hob and oven but they are both only on once a day for evening meal, is it my laptop that is using so much? In my last house which was a bigger house, we used approx £120 electric per quarter, I know electric has gone up a lot since this time last year but we are now in a smaller house and have cut back on what electric we use (we did used to leave things on standby all the time for instance, lights on etc etc)

espresso

Your laptop will not be using much electricity, probably only 30-40W. How much do you pay per kWh (unit on the meter) ? Can you get a better rate with another supplier?

Magentasue

Millie, was your 15th August reading estimated? Was it accurate?

It's six weeks since your last reading - how much have you used?

1carminestocky

I was having a conversation similar to this with 2 very educated people in the pub last Saturday night (they are friends of friends). They were both saying how they have started turning everything off at the mains because they had read how much it can cost in leccy in a year. I asked them who their energy supplier was and what tariff they were on. It transpired that they had been paying BGs standard tariff since the year dot!

I made the point that a far more productive use of their time would be first thing Monday morning to ring BG and request to be transferred to Click Energy 5. At the moment (OK, it's pre-increase) that would save them almost 50% on their energy bill as opposed to the pence turning everything off at the mains will do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying leave things on standby at all, but lets' get things in perspective here - most people in the UK are paying far too much in fuel charges but the main reason is because they are on a ridiculously expensive tariff!

PS My 7 year old 32" CRT Philips Cool Green 100hz (beautiful!) TV uses precisely 0.3 watts in standby mode. The Govt are wasting resources on this when they could be encouraging people to get on the very best tariff for them with the money they are spending on 'standby awareness'. Rant over.

Cardew

phildamb wrote: »

Your sky box on standby will use some power but not much. .

Actually Sky boxes on standby have the heaviest consumption of any device in most houses, mine are about 14 Watts.

This constant emphasis on the evils of standby consumption is completely counter productive IMO. In thread after thread on high bills/savings, always the first statement is I don't leave items on standby.

A device with a standby consumption of 1 Watt if left on 24/7 will cost less than £1 a year to run.

I have 4 TVs 2 old CRTs and 2 Large LCDs and all of them have a consumption of under 1 Watt. So even if I were to leave them on standby when not being used, they will cost pence per year.

Turning off clocks on Microwaves is just crazy.

bille_2

There are some products out there that are made for the purpose of finding out how much "parasitic energy" devices use when not in use. As mentioned above, items like toasters have real switches, and don't use any. The real culprits are electronics, or anything with a transformer type plug.

Try google for "kill-a-watt uk" and you'll see the device I'm referring to.

moonrakerz

It is always good practice to actually unplug electrical equipment when not in use, especially overnight.
Many houses have their power sockets wired incorrectly; the result of this is that when the appliance is switched "off" at the wall it is still live inside !