Getting your electric bill down to the bare minimum

uncommonadvice

Soz Atlantis - it was ages ago. However I know that Owl's are sometimes given away for free by BG and others. Keep an eye on the freebies board. OTOH - I would buy one if I saw one on Ebay or somewhere else.

Sirbendy

I just got a cheapie plug-in monitor that can do time-lapse cost monitoring and real-time usage. Very good. We had a microwave that used about 10watts on standby (clock)..it blew up. Now gone for a full manual "ping" end jobbie - 0w unless used. My indesit WIB111 uses about that when "off" on the panel - it goes at the mains every time. Wifi is on a "3 for £3" segmented timer, off at night and during the day while at work. Everything TV/AV runs from a multiway, that goes off the second we're done watching a programme. All bulbs are CFL. Freezer and fridge stay on, boiler is currently in water only mode. PC is set for hibernation if not used in 20 minutes, combined with a standby saver plug. erm..what else..my batteries/phone are charged off a 12v/5ah SLA battery, charged by 2 12v/3w solar panels, using a car charger.. My bills for electric come to £5-£6 tops per week.

gord115

ic wrote: »

I recently got an owl monitor and was shocked to learn:
- my induction hob used approx 100W on standby - this is waiting for a single "unlock" button to be pressed and lighting an LED!
- my Panasonic microwave used 60W on standby, just to run the clock.
- the dishwasher uses 30W when its finished a cycle and waiting to be switched off.
- the paper shredder uses 20W when its waiting for paper to be inserted.

I know switch off the microwave and hob when not in use, and I'm always concious to return to the dishwasher and switch it off.

I've halved the standby of my house from 350W to 170W. The only things on now are the TV/Freeview/Amp, 3xCordless Phones, Fridge Freezer, Oven, Combi Boiler, Alarm Clock, WiFi Modem. I can't bring myself to switch off any more, individually they don't use much, or the inconvinience of switching them off/on all the time is too much.

Tried a plug in wattmeter on my Panasonic microwave and it uses 4W with the clock turned on and 2w with it turned off....

amcluesent

Turning off your wi-fi router is all well and good, but it's using maybe 20W?

You really need to think about the serious kW users of immersion heater, space heaters, electric cooker/oven, spin dryer.

If you carefully planned full use of the oven at weekends, then froze and microwaved the food on weekdays, you'd save big time.

uncommonadvice

You are spot on amcluesent. The standby switch is small fry when I consider my ex-father in law used to turn the oven on to help heat up the house on a cold morning.

1carminestocky

amcluesent wrote: »

Turning off your wi-fi router is all well and good, but it's using maybe 20W?

You really need to think about the serious kW users of immersion heater, space heaters, electric cooker/oven, spin dryer.

If you carefully planned full use of the oven at weekends, then froze and microwaved the food on weekdays, you'd save big time.

I concur 100% with this. My brother in law is forever turning off all his TV/Hifi stuff at the wall socket...then uses his 3kw rated huge leccy oven to make himself a jacket potato! Madness. My TV uses 0.3 watt in standby mode. As my dad has said for many years, common sense is unfortunately not at all common. There are for more important things to worry about than unplugging it all the bloody time.