Is it cheaper to run several items on extension cable or severate sockets?

helenamy123

hi all,

Not sure if this is the stupidest question in the world or not....but bear with me!

At old house had about one socket a room and lots of extension cables and fairly low electric bills...

Moved last January had house rewired and had lots of sockets put in. So before would have had pc, monitor, printer and internet modem thing on one extention cable in one socket, now thay all have their own socket. (same with tv, sky, lamp etc

Have just had what i consider a large electric bill and just wondered if the use of extension cables to the use of seperate sockets is the answer to why the bill is so high??

Or I could just be having a senior moment (I'm 38) and it makes no difference?

Any help / advice please?

Thanks

Helen x

Alison_Funnell

The guy from EDF ( my OH) says no difference apart from the red light to prove there is power getting through.

Myself I would have thought there as a little loss due to the length of cable but aparently not enough to notice.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Probably not dearer to run, but definitely a whole lot safer.

You probably leave more things on standby because there is always a spare socket now, rather than having to unplug things.

Paulie'sGirl

Just a note on the point of safety vis a vis 4-gang extensions.

If your extension has the aforementioned red light, it is RCD protected. This helps to mitigate the effects of having several appliances drawing from one socket.

The older "blocks" and extensions without a red light will most likely not have this feature. Its advisable to change to the RCD kind.

Afterall, the premium you'll pay for house insurance after its burned down through "daisy-chaining" is more than a few properly wired leads.

Back to the main point, the resistance offered by modern cabling is such that you'd have to wait a long, long time for it to cause a significant increase to your bills

BitterAndTwisted

The consumption of electricity is dependent on the wattage of each appliance or whatever you've got plugged in, not on how many sockets you're using. Leaving things on "stand-by" is a waste but probably not a hugely significant one. You're just using more leccy

Penelope_Penguin

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Premier_2

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

...If your extension has the aforementioned red light, it is RCD protected. ...

Not necessarily.

Biggles

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

If your extension has the aforementioned red light, it is RCD protected. This helps to mitigate the effects of having several appliances drawing from one socket.

The older "blocks" and extensions without a red light will most likely not have this feature. Its advisable to change to the RCD kind.

No, none of that is correct.

They're not RCD protected, that will normally be done at the consumer unit, if at all. Though you can get special adaptors, especially for use with gardening equipment. In any event, RCD protection is nothing to do with having several appliances on one block, it's to protect against electric shock.

The red light on an extension block usually just means it's fused, so giving a little extra protection, though the plug running to the mains socket will itself be fused anyway.

You may be getting confused with surge protection, which many of these extension blocks have and which makes them suitable for electronic devices, as it can help protect against power surges, eg caused by lightning strikes etc.

Premier_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

... Leaving things on "stand-by" is a waste but probably not a hugely significant one. ...

You'd be amazed by how much electricity some appliances use in standby. Some of the older appliances may even use almost the same in standby as they do when turned on.

Perhaps the small investment in a plug in energy monitor will help to identify just how much an appliance uses?
Lidl has one for £6.99 from Monday 25th January
http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_7743.htm

I bought a similar device and discovered my computer & monitor was consuming over 4kWh of electricity every week even if it was all switched off! (i.e. not even in standby) :eek:
Now it gets disconnected at the wall when not in use.

helenamy123

Thanks for the replys.

I suppose I hadnt considered that the period covered by the bill was one where we had power tools galore running most days too.

I am obsessive about about turning things off and nothing is left on standby ever!

Cheers to all for comments tho,

regards

helen

KimYeovil

helenamy123 wrote: »

I suppose I hadnt considered that the period covered by the bill was one where we had power tools galore running most days too.

!?!

:doh: