Best energy saving products?

penrhyn

Routers should not be switched off they are designed to run 24/7.
As pointed out they consume very little power. Probably around 70Kwh over a year, cost around £15

tonsai

GGow wrote: »

I've got a few products to try and help cut down my electricity bills. Most recent and best one is a Treegreen energy egg I got from Tesco.

Does anyone else have one and what products do you use to help save money on bills?

The Savasocket One-Of-Each multipack looks like a good bundle of energy saving products.

Ultrasonic

penrhyn wrote: »

Routers should not be switched off they are designed to run 24/7.

Could you expand on that? What harm does it do if you do switch them off?

penrhyn wrote:

As pointed out they consume very little power. Probably around 70Kwh over a year, cost around £15

I must admit that to me that is a worthwhile saving, and is a reason that I currently switch my router off when I'm not using it. But obviously that's a personal judgement.

ic

The treegreen calculator is a little too basic to take at face value:
- it assumes your savings will be made on your initial rate of electricity, rather your second rate electricity (most people tend to be on a dual rate where the first 900kWh or so are charged at one rate, before dropping to a lower rate for subsequent kWh).
- it takes no account of discounts applied on top of the raw rate - i.e. dual fuel discount, direct debit discount, online billing discount, etc.

The rates suggested are dubious - for example the calculator assumes 30W for a router - I just did a quick search and found that the Virgin Media Super Hub uses 12.7W, and the reviewer considered that to be high. So the payback time will be 3 times longer than the suggested time (ignoring the discounts on the rates that would extend the payback time yet further).

Also are you not going to wind up with items being turned on unnecessarily? If I walk into the living room, that doesn't necessarily mean I want all the electronic items to turn on. My cat will soon learn he can turn the heater on for example...!

techno12

I like my Intellipanel extension leads that switch everything off once you put the TV or PC into standby (including the TV/PC itself - only the Intellipanel remains in standby).

Very convenient, and reasonably cheap at around £10 on eBay. I have 3 of them.

Apart from that, the biggest saving I ever made was putting my PC into sleep mode instead of leaving it on 24/7.

Oh, and as I've just mentioned on another thread, turning down the backlight on those flatscreen TVs from 100% to 20-30% dramatically cuts down the juice they require, plus arguably improves the picture. My 47" now needs just over 120w instead of the 260w it used at the default settings.

kar999

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Could you expand on that? What harm does it do if you do switch them off?

Constantly switching your router off can sometimes fool the automatic equipment in the telephone excahnge to think there is a fault on the line. It may then resync for up to 72 hours at a much slower speed that it thinks is stable. I have been down as low as 1 Mbps on a normally 6 Mbps line

Ultrasonic

kar999 wrote: »

Constantly switching your router off can sometimes fool the automatic equipment in the telephone excahnge to think there is a fault on the line. It may then resync for up to 72 hours at a much slower speed that it thinks is stable. I have been down as low as 1 Mbps on a normally 6 Mbps line

Thanks, I didn't realise that. I may try leaving mine on continuously for a few days to see if I notice a difference.

elektra

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Thanks, I didn't realise that. I may try leaving mine on continuously for a few days to see if I notice a difference.

ditto for me

kar999

I always turn mine off when going on holiday or away for a weekend and it has always fired back up at full speed. In theory turning it off each night shouldn't cause a problem but it's a known issue in some cases.

The last time it happened to me was when we had a power outage (local thunderstorm) and the router got turned on and off about six times in an hour until the power was finally fully restored. It completely screwed up the speed for a few days until it re-synced

You can always check your Sync speed and IP profile here:

http://speedtester.bt.com/

The technical stuff is here: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/maxdsl2.htm

abbecer

penrhyn wrote: »

What other green products have you bought?

My advise is to only boil the amount of water you need in the kettle, and only use just enough water to cover your vegetables, the same applies when having a bath.

Sorry I must have a dirty mind!! Did anyone else read "cover your vegetables in the bath?!" lol :rotfl: