how to cut electric

jitsuguy

Hi all,

When using a kettle try and only boil the amount of water you need. Plus if you're cooking rice/pasta/boiling potatoes, boil the water in the kettle first and then place in the pan on the cooker. It costs a lot less to do it this way, plus if you are using a gas cooker as well you will produce less CO2 emissions! Save money and the environment!

Sorry if it sounds like i'm nagging but I work in the area of renewable energy so get a little over enthusiastic!

Jitsuguy

moongarden

Ragtimeplayer wrote:

My electric bill has always been around the £120 mark in winter. This months winter bill was a shocking £244!

It is so irritating to not be able to find the real reason why my electric has gone up so much.

hi Ragtime player - have you used more units of electricity or has your supplier just charged you more for the same number of units?


Also maybe a useful tip: I read my meter every month on payday, i know how much my electric and gas are per unit so i am able to see how much i have spent that month.

If you have a tumble drier you could try using it as normal one week and then not using it the following week and see what actual difference it makes.

the same idea can be used to check the average consumption for any appliance.

earwig

hi the 1600 dose not inculed any of the areas if i wanted the short fall of last years bill inculed on my weekly payments it would have gone up to 21 per week i paid the short fall of and have started a new weekly payments and bassed on the last twelve months it works out at 16.00 per week
the telly is put on in the morring by dd and is left on all day i have started making her turn it of now when she leaves school as i dont watch telly durring the day as for the laptop some one told me it cost more electric to keep starting it up than to just leave it on allday how true that is i dont know

Floss

have you tried asking the leccy board for some energy saving advice? They can usually help & will give you an idea of what each item actually uses in leccy units (used to work for Manweb many moons ago & we used to give info then)

Is cold-fill the most economical way to run your washer....it will use leccy to heat up the water to the temp you've selected for the wash, so may be netter to swap to ho & cold fill use the hot water sitting in your tank as that will be cheaper to heat up. Also, use the most economical washes - with modern powders & liquids 40degrees is fine for most stuff - even kids mucky clothes, towels & bedding can be done on 60 deg with bio powder/liquid.

check that your immersion heater is off - sometimes there are 2 switches, maybe near your hot water tank (in airing cupboard if you have one?) and in your kitchen.

last thing - honest! unplug your mobile charger when not charging a phone - they eat the leccy units (feel it - the warmth is the leccy you're paying for).

good luck economising - let us know how you get on!

Badgergal

I'm amazed at the kettle thing. It takes longer to boil on the hob doesn't it? Does it really save a significant amount?

I'd be very amenable to the idea of getting a cool hob top one, as I saw a really nice one the other day!

moonrakerz

It's worth considering how much electricity various types of appliance use.

General rule of thumb - the more heat they produce - the more they cost to run.

Have look at your appliances (or the hand book) and you can easily work out how much they cost to run.
Look for the power rating of the item - xxxW or xkW (thousands of Watts)
a thousand Watts for one hour kWh ( a unit) costs about 7.5P.

I've just had a quick look round about me - a few examples:-

32" CRT TV 125W in use. 3W in Standby. 1P an hour to watch, 1/2P a day in standby.

14" Portable TV:: 60W. 1/2P an hour to watch.

DVD Player. 11W. 1P for 10 hrs (plus the TV !)

Jug Kettle 2500W. 20P an hour. It just took 2mins 10secs to boil a litre of water for my tea ! About a penny a pot.

Tumble Drier. 2500W. Similar to kettle, except it takes a bit longer than the kettle !

Vacuum cleaner. 1000W. 7.5P an hour

Ceramic 4 ring Hob. 5780W. 44P an hour ! That is with all four rings on full. Perhaps 22P in "normal" useage.

Oven Electric (Double). 5583W. Similar to hob

Conventional Light Bulb: 100W. 10hrs for 7.5P
Low Energy Light Bulb:: 20W. 50 hrs for 7.5P ( and they last 8 times as long as a conventional one)

The first thing to do is to fill your house with low energy lamps. They are coming down to reasonable prices now - especially if you buy multi-packs.

Generally the less you use something the more you save - BUT, they say that a modern dishwasher (for example) is a more efficient, and cheaper way, of washing up than doing it by hand !

calleyw

Floss wrote:

Is cold-fill the most economical way to run your washer....it will use leccy to heat up the water to the temp you've selected for the wash, so may be netter to swap to ho & cold fill use the hot water sitting in your tank as that will be cheaper to heat up. Also, use the most economical washes - with modern powders & liquids 40degrees is fine for most stuff - even kids mucky clothes, towels & bedding can be done on 60 deg with bio powder/liquid.

I think you will find the for the last couple of years that virtually all new washing machines are now cold fill only. And it heats the water itself.

I use gas for my water heating so when I get a new washing it will cost more to heat the water. But I will use less in water. But it would still take over 10 years before I start to go in to profit after buying a new machine.

To use less electric it just needs a little bit of thinking about. Like if you are watching the tv and it is night time do you really need the living room light on the hall light and the upstairs hall light on etc, etc. I am not suggesting that you live like moles and don't put lights on. But if you have the hall light on do you really need the living one if you have the tv on.

When things are not in use switch them off at the wall. I do that in my house apart from the answer machine, fridge freezer and my chest freezer. I do this as I said before not for money saving reasons but for safety reason.

Laptops tend to use less electric than a standard desktop. Having a flat screen will save electric and space as the old crt are hogs for electric.


Yours


Calley

gabs41

ruth_helen wrote:

Hi all, for those of you that have an electric kettle but cook on gas, bin the kettle and buy a gas hob one. Electric kettles cost a bomb to run

When you say a bomb, how much. I have an electric cooker. Would it work out cheaper to boil up water on the hob??
thanks

earwig

hi i once saw a link for a wattage caculator but i cant find it now dose anyone know it

CLAPTON

wattage meters can be purchased from electrical retailers e.g. maplin for £20-30
basically you plug the meter into the 13 amp socket and the appliance's plug into the meter and it tells you the wattage being used.