Cutting Electricity Usage

careerwumman

My flat runs exclusively on electricity. In anticipation of rising costs, can anyone tell me where to find the most comprehensive table comparing the usage of different appliances?

Cardew

The difficulty with providing 'comprehensive' figures is that the consumption of all devices vary according to the model, and way it is used.

Many handbooks for washing machines and dishwashers give the consumption for average cycles. My washing machine for example uses between 0.4 and 1.9kWh.

The consumption of a fridge or freezer depends on make, model, size, where in house it is situated, what is stored in it, how often you open door etc.

There are lots of sites on the web that give average consumptions of appliances but as these are often promoting conservation they tend to exagerate by taking a worse case scenario. For instance some sites I have seen quote the average standby consumption of a TV as 15-20 watts. Well that might have been the case many years ago but a more normal standby consumption is 0.6 watts(my 32" Sony for example) which means if it is left on permanantly(24/7) the cost is pence per year.

If you really want to know consumption there are power monitoring devices costing £10-20 that will give you exact readings of any period. So you could monitor, say, the consumption of your fridge over a week.

penrhyn

I would suggest that the first thing to do is record your electricity usage, take a meter reading once a week. You can them measure any savings you make. Then ask yourself some questions
How is your flat heated? Storage heaters should be on economy 7
How do you heat your water? Run on cheap rate/insulate tank
Are you on the cheapest electical tarriff? Check with Uswitch or the like.
Are your appliances A rated? Check models on the net
Do you use energy saving lights? Last longer take 25% of the power.

Have fun!

Juni_3

I always use this calculator (http://www.ukpower.co.uk/running-costs-elec.asp) as it seems to be the most accurate to me.

Amazing how cheap some things are to run. I find the older generation (like my in-laws) seem to think that a light bulb costs £50 a month to run.

They had a fit when I got my economy 7 meter taken out. Now I'm £400 in credit on my leccy bill.

Nelly.t

Tchibo have this plug thing that you stick in your socket and it tells you how many watts an appliance uses I think. If you plug in your heaters then this would tell you not only what a heater is using but everything else that gets plugged in too. Its a tenner to buy one. I might just get one myself.