Saving electricity - would socket timers be worth it?

Kittykat85

Hi all,

I'm trying to cut back my Gas and Electricity usage, as I guess we all are. I've just moved in to a 2 bed A rated flat and my first months bill (17h Feb-- 17th March) is looking to be £20.91 for electric and £22.95 for gas. Not sure how gas is so much as barely had heating on and just use it for hot water and hob everyday.
Anyway, I have the following electrical appliances
Bathroom:
Extractor Fan - usually on from 2-5 hours depending on condensation level as no window
Kitchen:
Oven - Always on at mains used regularly
FridgeFreezer - on obviously
Washing Machine - off at plug when not in use, used 3/4 times per week.
Dishwasher - used twice per week, off at mains when not in use.
Microwave - used for 3 mins daily and off at plug when not in use
Kettle - special occasions, unplugged when not in use (don't drink hot drinks)
Living room:
Halogen/low energy bulb - used approx 5-6 hours per day.
19inch TV - always on standby, on approx 5 hours per day
Nintendo Wii - played about 10 hours per week usually in standby
BT Vision plus box - On all day to record programs goes into standby as/when.
BT Home hub - always on
Cordless phone - always on used one per week max.
Bedroom:
Charging phone - overnight
Laptop - charged as needed.
Hair dryer and Straightener - unplugged and put away when not in use.
Light - low energy bulb, 1hour per day max.

I maybe use other lights for 10mins here and there.

WAYS I CAN SEE TO SAVE:
1) Switch to a corded phone (I have a funky red one on the list for next moth anyway)
2) Use a timer for charging my phone, reducing a 10ish hour charge (unplugged as I walk out the door to go to work) to just 3, using this timer for my laptop as needed.
3) Only plugging Wii in when needed
4) Setting TV on a timer, Homehub is needed for Vision+ box which records some tings while the TV would be turned off.
5) Watch less TV!!!!!

Is it really worth me buying a timer for the minimal savings I'd achieve?

Premier_2

Kittykat85 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm trying to cut back my Gas and Electricity usage, as I guess we all are. I've just moved in to a 2 bed A rated flat and my first months bill (17h Feb-- 17th March) is looking to be £20.91 for electric and £22.95 for gas. Not sure how gas is so much as barely had heating on and just use it for hot water and hob everyday.
Anyway, I have the following electrical appliances
Bathroom:
Extractor Fan - usually on from 2-5 hours depending on condensation level as no window
Kitchen:
Oven - Always on at mains used regularly
FridgeFreezer - on obviously
Washing Machine - off at plug when not in use, used 3/4 times per week.
Dishwasher - used twice per week, off at mains when not in use.
Microwave - used for 3 mins daily and off at plug when not in use
Kettle - special occasions, unplugged when not in use (don't drink hot drinks)
Living room:
Halogen/low energy bulb - used approx 5-6 hours per day.
19inch TV - always on standby, on approx 5 hours per day
Nintendo Wii - played about 10 hours per week usually in standby
BT Vision plus box - On all day to record programs goes into standby as/when.
BT Home hub - always on
Cordless phone - always on used one per week max.
Bedroom:
Charging phone - overnight
Laptop - charged as needed.
Hair dryer and Straightener - unplugged and put away when not in use.
Light - low energy bulb, 1hour per day max.

I maybe use other lights for 10mins here and there.

WAYS I CAN SEE TO SAVE:
1) Switch to a corded phone (I have a funky red one on the list for next moth anyway)
2) Use a timer for charging my phone, reducing a 10ish hour charge (unplugged as I walk out the door to go to work) to just 3, using this timer for my laptop as needed.
3) Only plugging Wii in when needed
4) Setting TV on a timer, Homehub is needed for Vision+ box which records some tings while the TV would be turned off.
5) Watch less TV!!!!!

Is it really worth me buying a timer for the minimal savings I'd achieve?

Not sure how fitting a timer is going to help you, other than possibly turning the tv off whislt you're trying to watch it. :eek:

Don't bother trying to turn the cordless phone off whilst you are not at home. The difference will only be a matter of pennies and you'll probably waste more than this in buying new batteries because of the repeated charge cycling.

Kittykat85

I meant fitting a tier to turn it off overnight/work time. for exapmle;
On 6:30 -8am for breakfast news fix,
Off 8am - 5:30pm
On 5:30-11pm
off 11pm - 6:30am.

Think the 7 hours per day of phone charging might justify a timer though.

As for cordless phone it makes too much racket when trying to find charge to bother - hence me having another reason to get a funky red retro phone.

I really can't see any other savings.

HappyMJ

Kittykat85 wrote: »

I meant fitting a tier to turn it off overnight/work time. for exapmle;
On 6:30 -8am for breakfast news fix,
Off 8am - 5:30pm
On 5:30-11pm
off 11pm - 6:30am.

Think the 7 hours per day of phone charging might justify a timer though.

As for cordless phone it makes too much racket when trying to find charge to bother - hence me having another reason to get a funky red retro phone.

I really can't see any other savings.

Forget saving money with the cordless phone. My cordless phone has 2 1.2V AAA batteries rated at 600mAh. That's only a few watts which costs very little to keep charged on an annual basis.

I would suggest using the oven less cooking multiple portions of food and then freezing half and microwaving it up next week.

You could turn the temperature of your stored water down at the risk of running out of hot water. That doesn't apply to a combi boiler.

Depending on the size of your family you could wash the clothes slightly less often wearing jeans for a couple of days for instance.

The best way of saving is to compare and switch your tariff. Is that tariff the best possible tariff for your usage?

macman

I think this is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. By far the biggest consumers of energy in your house are whatever you use for space heating and hot water, which you've hardly mentioned. Forget hair straighteners!
Your consumption (based on a winter month) is already extremely low-less than half the average.
Forget the £"s billed, quote the actual kWh consumption, as that is what matters.

Derivative

Rather than the timer plugs, it might be an idea to spend a few quid on one of those wattage meter plugs, so that you can find out what actually uses significant amounts of power.

General electricity rate seems to be roughly 20p per kWh - which is one kilowatt, for one hour. Kettles for example are usually about 1-2kW appliances, so if you left one on for an hour you'd pay 20-40p.

Stuff like your cordless phone is likely to be less than 10 watts, which is 0.01kW. So 0.2p to run it for an hour, or 4p a day - and might even be less.

Kittykat85

macman wrote: »

I think this is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. By far the biggest consumers of energy in your house are whatever you use for space heating and hot water, which you've hardly mentioned. Forget hair straighteners!
Your consumption (based on a winter month) is already extremely low-less than half the average.
Forget the £"s billed, quote the actual kWh consumption, as that is what matters.

The reason I've hardly mentioned it is because I've hardly used it.
I have gas central heating and a combi boiler. Heathing is controlled by an "always on" thermostat that is 16 during the day and 8 overnght. I've put it on manually for a total of about 6 hours to help my clothes dry ready or work.
As far as water heating goes I shower once a day for 10-15mins.
I use my dishwasher twice per week on Eco rather than washing up by hand daily. Boiler does come on as soon as hot water tap is tuned even if you only use a little to wash your hands etc.

I've used 108 units of electricity (I believe it's measured in KWh but I have no key to the electricity meter cupboard so can't check, I'll just be bugging the estate agent every month)

Pont

You're paying cira £42 per month in winter - I think that's pretty good. From your post I'm struggling to think how you can use £21 in electricity a month! Kettles, tumble dryers, hair dryers etc being the usual culprits doen't seem to apply here. However, bear in mind it's not what you're paying, it's what you're using in kwh is the deciding factor.

What tariff are you on? With whom? Have you GCH? Have you night time tariffs? Are you paying dd? All of these are soooo important when trying to get your bills reduced rather than turning appliances off at the plug every night (if there's no standby light it seems pretty pointless to me!) ie your kettle.

HappyMJ

Kittykat85 wrote: »

The reason I've hardly mentioned it is because I've hardly used it.
I have gas central heating and a combi boiler. Heathing is controlled by an "always on" thermostat that is 16 during the day and 8 overnght. I've put it on manually for a total of about 6 hours to help my clothes dry ready or work.
As far as water heating goes I shower once a day for 10-15mins.
I use my dishwasher twice per week on Eco rather than washing up by hand daily. Boiler does come on as soon as hot water tap is tuned even if you only use a little to wash your hands etc.

That Eco setting on the dishwasher is a bit of a con...It takes twice as long to wash the dishes as it uses a lower temperature and slightly less water but the energy used is exactly the same. You will save 2 litres of water per wash. You need to read the manual to get the exact figures. A typical Eco cycle takes 2 hrs 30 minutes and a quick wash takes 30 minutes. The normal wash is about 1 hr 30 minutes.

I would use the quick wash program as much as possible.

Kittykat85

Washing machine (from manufacturer details):
ECO: 49l water, 0.85 kWh if run at 60 but I dial it down to 40 (lowest possible)
Cotton Normal: 58l, 1.9kWh (runs @90 by default)
Synthertics Normal: 45l, 0.7kWh (based on 60 degrees, this looks like the best option, esp if dialed down to 30 or 40).

Dishwasher:
Eco, 140mins, 1.05kWh, 16l water
Quick, 30mins, 0.9kWh, 9l water. Think I may switch to this and wash up pots and pans by hand.

Thanks

Andy_WSM

Kittykat85 wrote: »

Dishwasher:
Eco, 140mins, 1.05kWh, 16l water
Quick, 30mins, 0.9kWh, 9l water. Think I may switch to this and wash up pots and pans by hand.

Thanks

But why?! The difference isn't even a penny's worth of electricity! You'll likely use more gas running a bowl of hot water - and won't get dishes as clean!