I'm in a panic about my bills..

HH62

Firstly thanks to all of you.
Second, I read my meter at about 3pm yesterday. I was out last night from 6.30pm. Between 3 and 6.30 I also went out to do some shopping. All I did after reading my meter yesterday was post on here, so PC was on, and have a shower, and reheat a meal in the microwave. Then I went out, leaving no lights on, and just things plugged in like a radio alarm clock. I was out all night and read my meter when I got home at 10am. I've used 4 units in that time. Now I havent a clue about average usage amounts, but each unit costs 16p. So somehow I comsumed 64p worth of leccy in that short period, of which I was out for more than 10 hours.
I live in an apartment block sharing with 8 other flats. I'm wondering if my meter is hooked up to someone elses or something.
Tomorrow I will be out from 8am till 7pm. I plan to switch off every single thing in the flat when I go out, and read my meter. WIll be interesting to see what it reads when I get back home.
Any thoughts?

magyar

HH62 wrote:

Firstly thanks to all of you.
Second, I read my meter at about 3pm yesterday. I was out last night from 6.30pm. Between 3 and 6.30 I also went out to do some shopping. All I did after reading my meter yesterday was post on here, so PC was on, and have a shower, and reheat a meal in the microwave. Then I went out, leaving no lights on, and just things plugged in like a radio alarm clock. I was out all night and read my meter when I got home at 10am. I've used 4 units in that time. Now I havent a clue about average usage amounts, but each unit costs 16p. So somehow I comsumed 64p worth of leccy in that short period, of which I was out for more than 10 hours.
I live in an apartment block sharing with 8 other flats. I'm wondering if my meter is hooked up to someone elses or something.
Tomorrow I will be out from 8am till 7pm. I plan to switch off every single thing in the flat when I go out, and read my meter. WIll be interesting to see what it reads when I get back home.
Any thoughts?

OK so you used 4kWh. Taking into account your shower, PC use etc., your house is using about 200W base load. (Which is high!) :eek: You presumably have a fridge? Freezer? They're probably about 20-30W each, which accounts for about 50W.

I would take these figures again and get an average over a few days.

By the way, which region are you in, who is your supplier and are you getting all the maximum discounts (e.g. dual fuel, direct debit discount...)

Cardew

magyar wrote:

Actually Cardew, I'm not so sure you should be criticising people for saying things should be turned off standby.

A typical colour CRT TV will use ~100W of power when on. Assumed this is on 2 hrs per day then that's 200 Wh of energy. If it's on standby then using your figure of 1W then the remainder of the day will use 22Wh of energy, i.e. about 10% of total.

OK so the total cost is still only 5.8 kWh a year, or about 58p (!) but if the ~60m TVs in the country are all on standby then this could be costing the country £34m a year and accounting for about 800,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

So agreed, we're only saving 50p each, but we should all still do it!

(For the record, I appreciate your point was about exaggerating this, rather than it being a material point)

I was making no criticism; merely correcting inaccurate statements on this forum. I specifically stated:

To save the usual comments like "every little helps", by all means switch things off(rather than leave on standby) if you wish. However don't exagerate the power consumption of appliances on standby.

From post after post on this forum you will see that this 'urban myth' leads people to believe that all they need to do is to get a major reduction in their consumption is not leave items on standby.

Thus we have the ludicrous situation of people turning off and resetting clocks(thousands of times a year) on microwaves, cookers, washing machines, alarm clocks etc in the mistaken belief that this is the major source of their high bills; and ignoring the major causes of unnecessary consumption.

seven-day-weekend

I would sling the dishwasher, use the washing machine twice a week at the most and dry the washing on the clothes horse. Also use the oven on your cooker to do 2-3 meals at a time and freeze the 'spares' (which you can heat up at a later date whilst cooking something else!).

Since we've lived in Spain I don't have a dishwasher or a tumble dryer (didn't have them in the UK either), don't have a microwave and we manage fine like I've mentioned above.

(We don't have an i*on either!!!)

magyar

Cardew wrote:

I was making no criticism; merely correcting inaccurate statements on this forum. I specifically stated:



From post after post on this forum you will see that this 'urban myth' leads people to believe that all they need to do is to get a major reduction in their consumption is not leave items on standby.

Thus we have the ludicrous situation of people turning off and resetting clocks(thousands of times a year) on microwaves, cookers, washing machines, alarm clocks etc in the mistaken belief that this is the major source of their high bills; and ignoring the major causes of unnecessary consumption.

Yeah I do take your point. My argument was mostly on environmental grounds.

magyar

immoral_angeluk wrote:

Oh and also you microwave will *probably* be using more electicity than an oven would as they use higher powers to cook faster, so you're probably better off using a normal oven.

Sorry immoral_angeluk I don't think this is right. Of course a microwave will use more power (i.e. kW) than a cooker, but because it cooks nearly ten times faster, it's going to use less energy (i.e. kW h). [noted that you do say "probably"]

But of course your meals will be much nicer in an oven!

HH62

Magyar, I'm in the north west. My supplier is EDF (I cant change because the landlord wont let me). I get gas and leccy from them so I pay by DD monthly.

magyar

Well, according to uswitch, EDF are far from your cheapest supplier; you should definitely switch (were you allowed to). Have you asked your landlord why he won't let you switch? Is it a clause in a contract or 'he just won't let you'?

Morally, it's completely wrong of him to restrict you when you're paying the bills. I mean it's not like anything physically happens - has this been explained to him?

Cardew

I doubt a landlord can stop you changing supplier if the account is in your name - how would he know anyway?

What EDF tariff are you on and what price per kWh are you paying?

chris73

Microwaves do not use more power than a cooker, check your appliances rating plate to compare!!!.

Most microwaves are rated at 750 - 900W, even allowing for inductive losses, fans, turntable etc, that will be often less than a kw (1000 Watts) compared to a conventional electric oven which takes 1.5 - 3kw depending on the element.

Then you also have to compare the fact that a microwave directly cooks the food, compared to the fan / convection oven which first has to heat the air inside it!, and it (microwave) also cooks far faster, meaning that it only has to be on for a small amount of time. Cooking with a microwave is far more efficient, energy wise than a conventional oven, check the wattages!

PC's can also use a surprising amount of power when left on 24/7, modern P4 processors consume large quantities of power and so an average PC can consume anything between 60 and 150 Watts depending on how it is configured, its age, and what is installed, then there is the monitor to consider too. Even taking an average of 100 Watt load (I measured mine at 94W), that is a KWH consumed for every 10 hours it is left on, so in 24 hours at 10p per KWH that is roughly 24p a day or £1.68 a week or £15.12 a quarter just for the PC. Unless your PC is acting as a server there is no logical reason to keep it running 24/7

Buy some energy saving lamps, these draw around 20W so you can run five of them for the equiv cost of one 100W conventional lamp. Turn lights off when doing non light essential tasks like watching TV. When on the computer consider running just a desk lamp with a 15W or 20W energy saving bulb. you don't need to light the entire room up for tapping on a keyboard.

Why do you use the washing machine every day??, I live alone and I do two loads of washing a week, usually on the same day.

If you are heating water anyway, why not try the old, tried and tested method of hand washing plates?? you are on your own, and not throwing a dinner party, I can't see you having more than a handful of utensils to wash, does it REALLY need a dishwasher running for 45 minutes to clean a couple of cups and plates!.