Avoid using GAS and ELECTRIC !

cw18

has anyone else monitored the useage for a laptop and/or desktop (and monitor)?

I did my laptop last week, and unless I've totally messed up it's only costing me about £1.20/month to run. This seemed very, very cheap to me, so I was wondering if I'd messed up somewhere?

Have had DS's desktop (and monitor) on the power monitors yesterday. Just worked out his average hourly use over a week (allowing for college holidays seeing more use than term time - and was interested to see that this calculates to pretty much spot on the same as my average useage), and his is coming in at the same £1.20 -- but for a week rather than a month!!!

(Am now even more concerned I calculated wrongly for my laptop - guess I'll have to hook it back up and double check )

My calculations also show that his computer (which, other then his bedroom light and a couple of hours TV a week, is the only power he uses purely for 'him' -- so I'm not going to bite his head off over it) accounted for around 15% of last weeks useage in our household of 3 :eek: (can't blame the dogs for any of the useage, otherwise it would be household of 5 )

Add that to the 27% used by my chest freezer, and the 3% by my laptop, and that's 45% of our power consumption in just 3 appliances !!!!

But once I replace the freezer, then (based on useage for the new one being the quoted figure plus a factor of about 10%) his useage as a percentage is going to shoot up considerably to somewhere around 20-21%, and I may be hard pressed not to try and convince him to cut back his useage

turfy6

Hi I read this tip somewhere regarding old freezers. It could be useful if you want to get rid of an old one to to buy a new A rated one, or just have one lying around that does not work anymore. "An old freezer is very useful if you grow your own potatoes, it makes an excellent place to store them being dark and reasonably cold." So anyone out there wondering what to do with the old one, or broken one, perhaps grow your own spuds or offer it to someone who does and of course it helps if you have the space, and old shed would be ideal.

looby-loo_2

turfy6 wrote: »

Hi I read this tip somewhere regarding old freezers. It could be useful if you want to get rid of an old one to to buy a new A rated one, or just have one lying around that does not work anymore. "An old freezer is very useful if you grow your own potatoes, it makes an excellent place to store them being dark and reasonably cold." So anyone out there wondering what to do with the old one, or broken one, perhaps grow your own spuds or offer it to someone who does and of course it helps if you have the space, and old shed would be ideal.

My allotment is at the top of my garden. My OH complains that nothing is bought, everything is recycled or make do and mend.

exlibris

Just be careful what you use the old freezer for. We had replaced one just before Christmas and put the old one in the garage for OH to use for storage. I had bought a frozen turkey and about 3 days before it was to be cooked I asked OH to put it on the freezer in the garage to thaw. He put it inside! It waas still solid when I went for it on Christmas eve. We had the trimmings for Christmas Dinner and the turkey for the New Year.

cheerfulness4

cw18 wrote: »

has anyone else monitored the useage for a laptop and/or desktop (and monitor)?

I did my laptop last week, and unless I've totally messed up it's only costing me about £1.20/month to run. This seemed very, very cheap to me, so I was wondering if I'd messed up somewhere?

I've kept notes on the things I've monitored in the house and my laptop takes much less electric than the desk top.

Laptop - 3hrs 10mins = 2p
Desktop - 1 hr 20mins = 2p

cw18

thanks for that the figure for the laptop compares pretty accurately to mine, so looks like I did do the calculations right !!
I'm astounded at the difference between the two :eek:



the latest thing I've had plugged in is my mobile phone charger -- totally flat to totally charged. time elapsed 1hr 20. kWh reading shows as 0.00 :huh: I always thought these were fairly hungry beasts too -- especially given all the hype about not leaving the chargers plugged in/turned on when not actually charging the phone

Magentasue

I don't think phone chargers are that hungry. I think it's a cululative thing - average four person house over a year rather than single use. I have four teens/twenties who always seem to be charging batteries, phones,laptops, games stuff, ipods, up and down the stairs ...

I don't suppose any of them cost that much on their own but they are a constant draw of power.

cw18

guess we're not too bad on those things then. DH's phone gets charged once every 4-6 weeks (turns it on to make a quick call home a couple of times a week, then straight back off), and DS probably doesn't do his more than that either (doesn't use it as much as DH does!). Mine probably gets charged once every 5 days or so.....

Battery charging -- other than the laptop it's very rare here (until the remote controls for TVs etc need 'new' batteries). Don't have iPods or such (yet - DS is after an MP3 player though)

Totally different story when elder DS is home though.....
He leaves everything plugged in (laptop, phone charger, iPod, SatNav !!!!!!!) even when he ends up staying at a mates place all night -- and well into the next day. He was home for 2 weeks last month, and got annoyed with me 'cos I kept going into his room and flicking all the sockets off Have told him that next time he's home (Christmas) I'll be charging him for the increase in our electricity bill over the duration of his visit :rotfl:

(Problem is he lives in Army barracks, so he pays peanuts a week for accomodation which includes the fuel bills -- so he just doesn't realise what the cost of doing this is )

Emily_Hall08

calleyw wrote: »

Someone asked the same question on another board on MSE that deals with the gas/elec and someone replied you would not still be around if you had a 50p leak let alone a £300 leak.

So doubt it is a leak.

Yours


Calley

True I guess. Since the house was empty for most of the time period stated on the bill, I was just worried something could have gone wrong in some way since I wasn't really here to know things were running smoothly..

I have another query! When I've had the gas hob on for cooking i've noticed a kind of whispering, wind noise. Any ideas what that is? Bit worrying!

looby-loo_2

Gas is too complicated to work out!