Are you wasting over £700 a year on electricity? We were - not any more.

mattymoo

Around 6 months ago I capped my rate with Eon energy and they supplied a nifty little energy usage meter. This is connected near the main meter and can measure the current level of consumption within the house, second by second. It also calculates dialy and monthly costs for you.

I started out with good intentions and replaced normal light bulbs with low energy bulbs but the typical consumption would be around 800 watts at any given time.

Last friday I was made redundant so decided to spend some time working out how much we could save and this is how we did it.

We took a base figure of 955 watts per hour. This is based on my daughter needing nearly every light on upstairs at night - we call it Blackpool illuminations.

First of all we turned all the lights off - 877 watts.

Then we turned off the TV / DVD / games console in kids rooms. This bought it down to 845.

Then I put all the AV gear in main bedroom on one socket and left clock radios and bedside lamps on the rest. By turning off the AV socket the figure came down to 759.

Next came the kitchen. Every appliance off bar the cooker, fridge and small aquarium - 736.

Next came my office. Laptop, desktop (on 24/7), 2 x printers and hi-fi etc. This bought the figure down to 413.

Now for the living room. Turned off the Dell PC - 278.
Then I put the 2 x sky plus boxes and TV on one multisocket. The AV amp, subwoofer, DVD player / recorder, games consoles etc on the rest. Turned off all bar the Sky+ and the figure came down to 213.

Finally the utility room. Left the freezer on but turned washing machine off. This was not running before and had no digital display but the figure came down to 195.

So - started with 955 and came down to 195. This means that when "idling" the house is only using 20% of the power it was before. I'm absolutely gobsmacked.

Now, I'm not such a tight wad that things like TV will be banned but it will simply be a case of turning power on when we need it. At the current rates the meter is suggesting we will pay £15 a month instead of £75 a month. That's £60 a month difference - or £720 a year. I know that we will not see all of this saving because of high power consumption items like washing machine, oven etc but it is still a big saving.

This is all based on a 1930's 3 bed semi by the way.

Magentasue

Our Currentcost display idles at 100-150watts. Normal daytime is 300-500, if kids have TV on, I have laptop and radio etc. I don't take any notice of it when appliances are being used.

Evening, I aim to keep it under a kwh. 600w is good, 700-800 is average. Before we put lamps with low enery bulbs in kids' bedrooms, it was regularly over a kwh all evening. So we're saving about 300 watts an hour for about five hours every day = 1.5kwh a day or abbout 550 a year, at 12.5p kwh, that's £70 a year just by replacing a few bulbs and turning lights off in the evenings.

mattymoo

Al_Mac wrote: »

Does putting things on one socket have a genuine impact?

No - just makes it easier to manage turning off.
The AV kit for instance includes 2 x Sky+ boxes, TV, subwoofer, DVD player, DVD recorder, scart switcher, Gamecube, Wii, Xbox, PS2, video sender, AV amp and so on.
I put the Sky + boxes and TV on one socket via a multiplug that will be left on permanently. The rest get turned off until needed.

JayMT

mattymoo wrote: »

... I know that we will not see all of this saving because of high power consumption items like washing machine, oven etc but it is still a big saving.
....

You may be pleasantly surprised how little the washing machine actually costs per wash.

I measured mine using a plug-in power meter: a 2 hour wash at 40C used 0.36kWh of energy, so assuming an average cost of 10p a unit, that's 3.6p per wash.

lizzyb1812

I think the saving comes in being able to completely turn off some equipment at the socket. EG in the original post by putting the clock and lamp on one socket and the AV equipment on the other you could turn off the AV socket and leave the clock socket on. That would mean any standby type use by the AV equipment would be got rid of.

I'm amazed at the things that have this standby facility - my washing machine can only be switched completely off by hand, after a wash ends it goes into standby which is indicated by a blinking light. Why on earth would a washing machine need to be on stand by?

simpywimpy

Im not with eon, where can I get one of these usage monitors from please? My kids waste loads with leaving lights and tv on all night. AND we have a pc that is on 24/7. It really is time to take control again

Debt_Free_Chick

Very interesting. Every comment I've seen on the internet (and there's a mistake ) suggests that leaving a PC on doesn't consume much electricity.

As I leave mine on 24/7, that's going to change from NOW!

Flyfisher_2

simpywimpy wrote: »

Im not with eon, where can I get one of these usage monitors from please? My kids waste loads with leaving lights and tv on all night. AND we have a pc that is on 24/7. It really is time to take control again

https://www.eonshop.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductCode=ESAVEPACK&Category=5
£50.00

Sponge

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Very interesting. Every comment I've seen on the internet (and there's a mistake ) suggests that leaving a PC on doesn't consume much electricity.

As I leave mine on 24/7, that's going to change from NOW!

I think it depends on your PC. Some motherboards have features, like Wake On Lan, that consume electricity even when the PC is off. The only way to truely turn them off is at the wall.

I bought a monitor from Aldi recently and have it monitoring my PC setup. Even with everything turned off, it still registers a few watts.

It's a similar story with chargers, e.g. mobile phone chargers. You may assume that if a phone isn't connected, and the charger is turned on at the wall, that no electricity is being used - that may not be the case. One way to check is to see if the charger is staying warm. The only way to know for sure is to turn it off at the wall.

mattymoo

Try Ebay - http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=energy+monitor

Some connect to the incoming mains near the meter and measure "whole house" consumption. Cheaper ones sit between the appliance and the socket and measure one item at a time.

savemoney

Aldi sell energy monitor in this weeks offer