The 50% Electricity Challenge - Everyone welcome!

Pippilongstocking

someone told me once about putting a fridge freezer and o6freezer on a timer and having it switched off during the night for a max of about 6 hours - the theory was that if you didnt open it, it was ok cos it neither loses temperature nor needs to rejig itself - anyone know how true this is? My freezer runs at about 3.2p/hour (i have an energy owl) so thinking if its off for 6 hours a night 12.30am-6.30 am when no one uses it - would that work? Two freezers, therefore 6 hour saving a day at 6.5p hour (fingers out) um 39p day? or am I blethering nonsense, its been known"!!

During powercuts etc it can be off for a day or so at a time, as long as you dont open them I am sure they are ok arent they?

Lemon_Tree

Hi i'd like to join in with this, i'm a bit of a leccy control freak.
I'll let you know my readings when i get home.
i've just received a gadget from the leccy people which tells me what i'm using/ how much i've saved by turning something off etc which i need to get up and running.
I already have things on timers so they use the cheap leccy, but i have often wondered how much energy a timer actually uses.
We don't keep anything on standby, and won't turn the heating on until next month at the earliest (storage heaters - enuff said!).
Last night we put up the second set of curtains in the living room to try and stop the heat escaping from our huge but terrible patio doors.

mrcow

This is a great idea as I'm always nagging my lot to turn off lights etc.

Can I join too?

Reading at 1pm today is 24089.

I have no idea how much I pay per unit so this is going to be a good heads up for me too.

pandapaws

Welcome to the challenge Nannychook, Lemon Tree & Mrc - I'll add you to the list.

fayjmck wrote: »

someone told me once about putting a fridge freezer and o6freezer on a timer and having it switched off during the night for a max of about 6 hours - the theory was that if you didnt open it, it was ok cos it neither loses temperature nor needs to rejig itself - anyone know how true this is? My freezer runs at about 3.2p/hour (i have an energy owl) so thinking if its off for 6 hours a night 12.30am-6.30 am when no one uses it - would that work? Two freezers, therefore 6 hour saving a day at 6.5p hour (fingers out) um 39p day? or am I blethering nonsense, its been known"!!

During powercuts etc it can be off for a day or so at a time, as long as you dont open them I am sure they are ok arent they?

I wondered the same thing - I wasn't sure if they used more power to get giong again after you've switched them back on or not. I also heard that they're fine for a while if they're switched off overnight, so I might try that idea (next week!), perhaps set to go off at midnight and back on at 2, then off at 3 and on at 6 or something like that. Although night only costs about a third of the day rate for me, so maybe not worth it. Hmmm...

My dryer socket is behind the machine and really difficult to get to but there's a spur socket above the worktop. Is it possible to get timers that you can fit to spurs? Without it costing lots!

tyllwyd

fayjmck wrote: »

someone told me once about putting a fridge freezer and o6freezer on a timer and having it switched off during the night for a max of about 6 hours

I think the rule of thumb in a powercut is about 8 hours before the food is unsafe? I think you would be taking a bit of a risk with the food - and would it put extra strain on the freezer itself if you kept switching it on and off?


Edited to say - I had a bit of a look for the costs of running a fridge freezer, and at 3.2p per hour your fridge would be costing you £280 per year to run. The figures I saw were more in the region of £28 per year - are you sure you haven't misplaced a decimal point? Otherwise you need to invest in a new one!

pandapaws

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

Last night we put up the second set of curtains in the living room to try and stop the heat escaping from our huge but terrible patio doors.

Ooh, what a good idea. Completely blindingly obvious as well - how come I've never thought of that before? Will have a look through all our old curtains to see if there are any that can be added as extra lining. Thanks!

pandapaws

tyllwyd wrote: »

I think the rule of thumb in a powercut is about 8 hours before the food is unsafe? I think you would be taking a bit of a risk with the food - and would it put extra strain on the freezer itself if you kept switching it on and off?

I think you might be right, I don't know if it would be worth it. Perhaps if I get a freezer to go into the garage I might try it with that as I can set it to switch off during the day for longer periods but I think I'll leave my fridge-freezer alone.

Interesting about the copper in the hot water - didn't know that. I don't drink boiled water anyway, it's only for cooking so I'll carry on doing that but perhaps cut out using it in the kettle (except for the mother-in-law:D ).

Welshlassie

Have just been to B&Q and bought a multi way service key so can now get into my meter box, hopefully. Will post tomorrow what my reading is (will try and remember to do it when I leave in the morning)

pandapaws

Welshlassie wrote: »

Have just been to B&Q and bought a multi way service key so can now get into my meter box, hopefully. Will post tomorrow what my reading is (will try and remember to do it when I leave in the morning)

Welshlassie, how much did it cost?

BTW, for anyone thinking of getting energy saving bulbs, they were on offer in Morrisons at 5 for 50p a couple of weeks ago. Anyone know if they still are?

Pippilongstocking

Thus far we are ok, thinking of using timer - as I would always forget - and yeah I guess where some folk live power cuts might only last 8 hours!!! We had one once that lasted 3 days, common was at least a day or so - after 2 days were advised to put blanket over it, as long as its not opened it lasts a long time.

The food thing is an issue maybe, each freezer different, erring on side of caution never hurt - we have mainly bread in ours lots of bread.

Looking for lining curtains now!!