Parents' £80 Elec. bill p.m, surely too much?Emersion heater?

lu_lu_2

Hi Buel,

Mine is an eco saver power monitor plug & I have used it very successfully on my freezer.

Not very sure of the differences between these devices except possibly ease of use & cost.

If I have read your last post correctly your parents have 2 x fridge/freezers & 2 x freezers. Do they live in the wilds of nowhere because this seems rather a lot for 2 people & if they are oldish then possibly this accounts for a large proportion of their leccy bill, especially if they are drawing betwen 1200w & 1600w as my old freezer was?

If they do live in the wilds of nowhere then I can certainly understand them having 2 freezers but why 2 fridge/freezers). Perishables rarely keep for more than a week so would not think that 2 fridges were necessary.

I have a nasty feeling that you are going to be in for another very busy w/e. The contents of these freezers, I think, need investigating & any seriously out of date items & those with freezer burn need to be discarded. (No I don't subscibe to "if it is out of date chuck it" but do apply commonsense - if it looks OK, smells OK then eat it). If you do audit the freezers may I respectfully suggest that anything that needs chucking you take away with you as I have heard of mothers who have, when their daughter has left, propmpty returned discarded items to the freezer!!!

Could they possibly turn one fridge/freezer off obviously transferring the contents, after investigation, to one of the other freezers?

The efficiency of the freezers might be improved if they were defrosted, assuming that they are not frost free & have a bit of a build up of ice.

If your Mum has this much food in stock yoy could set her a house keeping challenge i.e. if she normally spends £80pw could she reduce this to £70 by using what is in the freezer.

As I have said in my PM if I can help with the research of new appliances pls feel free to contact me.

If the weather tomorrow is as bad as today maybe I ought to audit my feezer!!:)

buel

Hello lu lu,
Thank you (once again!!) for your brilliant advice! Thank you for your pm, i have been ultra-busy lately but will contact you soon!
I have gone for the Argos plug in energy monitor and will pick it up tomorrow, i cant wait to use it on the hundred fridges+freezers when i go up to my parents on friday! Regarding the useage of 1200w-1600w, (being as i am naive when it comes to watts and kilowatt hours), please can you tell me over what time period that was?

If I have read your last post correctly your parents have 2 x fridge/freezers & 2 x freezers. Do they live in the wilds of nowhere

Yes you are (unfortunately) quite right and, yes, very much out in the sticks! However, the good news is the fridge-freezer in the house (over 5 years old) is soon to be replaced once i find a suitable energy efficient one! The chest freezer that my mum uses will have to stay so the energy monitor will be on that soon enough! As for the chest freezer and the fridge-freezer in my Dad's shed, i believe he is willing to swap the fridge-freezer with a fridge.....would there be any gain in this please?

The efficiency of the freezers might be improved if they were defrosted, assuming that they are not frost free & have a bit of a build up of ice.

I shall certainly get on to this this weekend, thank you for this, i didn't realise this made a difference!!

Ps- have you any thoughts on these contoversial plugs-
http://www.windtrap.co.uk/energy-sav...hold/savaplug/

Norman_Castle

Ps- have you any thoughts on these contoversial plugs-
http://www.windtrap.co.uk/energy-sav...hold/savaplug/

If the technology in these plugs does make a difference I expect modern fridges and freezers will have it built in.Save yourself £35 by not buying this product.

lu_lu_2

Hi Buel,

I have no knowledge of these plugs but would have thought that if they did work then they would be readily available. I have not found any other websites selling them or anything similar so am doubtful of their abilities.

I think I am becoming confused or am I missing something obvious - as your parents live in the wilds of nowhere then I would have thought that another freezer not fridge would be of most use to them or does your Mum keep all her fresh veg in the fridge & buys enough carrots etc for 2/3 weeks. Over the winter I think an unheated shed/garage is usually sufficiently cold to keep these items fresh but I am sure a more knowledgeable MSEer will be able to advise.

Power monitor plug. When I said it was telling me that my old freezer was using 1200 watts (1.2kw) this was per day. I read the monitor each morning & recorded the usage. Mine has an accumulative display so day one said 1200 watts (1.2kw) day two 2400 watts (2.4kw) etc. You don't need to do it daily weekly will be fine & I hope you don't have too much of a shock as 4 x 1.2kw (obviously) = 4.8 kw almost 5kw per day or 1,752kw per year!

Hope this helps

buel

Hello lu lu!
It's not you getting confused-it's me not explaining properly-the fridge-freezer in the house is for milk, cheese, bacon, salad+the frozen meats/meals(v. small freezer compartment), the one chest freezer in the shed is for loaves, meat, meals, chips etc. My dad's fridge-freezer is for food for the lots of dogs/ferrets etc+his chest freezer is for the amount of rabbits/hares/pheasants for the ferrets.

buel

ideally i think my dad could manage with one large fridge-freezer that has a particularly large freezer compartment! The reason my mum is keen to replace her fridge-freezer is that it is on the way out so that's kind of good news! Can i ask why you say a freezer is better to replace than a fridge?
As for you not wanting me/my parents to have a shock with using the plug with the freezers, on the contrary, i WANT it to be a shock+if it does turn out to be 5kw per day then that is £3.50 per week!

buel

and that would account for 5 of the 18 units they use per day-Blimey!!
So, ultimately, i guess my (it seems more like 'our') aim is to replace the fridge-freezer, defrost the one chest freezer, get my dad to use one fridge-freezer+dump his chest freezer+maybe get my mum to replace her desktop pc with a laptop(if, as it sounds like, the computer is on 12hours a day) and finally get the meter swapped over to a normal pay-monthly-by-direct-debit meter+potentially change supplier! Do you agree with this plan?

lu_lu_2

Hi Buel,

Thanks for the clarification - I was beginning to think I had "lost the plot"!!

May I suggest that before your parents replace any of these appliances you do a 7 day elec usage on each of them to determine which one is costing the most to run. Yes I know this will take a month but a new freezer costs about £350 quite a bit of money in my book.

Living where your parents do your Mum obviously needs a fridge/freezer & a freezer but does your Dad also need the same for "the animals", could he manage say with just the fridge/freezer that at least would be one appliance less?

Your parents leccy cost are certainly improving my typing skills!!:rotfl:

lu_lu_2

Hi Buel,

We appeat to have been both posting at the same time. Will now go & reread your latest posts

lu_lu_2

Hi again,

Can we slow down a bit as I have a very nasty feeling that I am nearer your parents in age than yours. In fact I am certain of this & my little "grey cells" are not as quick as they were!!!!:eek:

I thought, possibly erroneously, that you had sorted out the prepayment meter/tariff & this was now all "in hand" although it does take 6/8 weeks to go thro'. If not done this is an absolute 1st to do.

If you can persuade your Dad that he could manage without the "hanimal" freezer (intentional misspelling) then that would be a VERY good move as at best it is probably using 800 watt (0.8kw) per day = 5.6kw per week or possibly as much 7kw per week. You would only know the exact figure after putting the monitor on it.

You, I think, say that your Mum's fridge/freezer is on its "last legs" although I thought you had said, again I maybe have misread/remembered, it was only just over 5 yrs old & it should last longer than this even with modern built in obsolesence (ie not made as well as they used to be). If she wants to replace it I will be pleased to give whatever help I can.

Can we pls deal with the computer next week. Why is your Mum having it on all day unless she is using it to run a business/write her memoirs?

Bye Buel for today, will catch up tomorrow.