How much to save with more efficient appliances?

x12yhp

Hi guys,

I am in debate about appliances. I have washer/dryer, oven, hob, fridge and freezer which are all 15+ years old. Realistically, what sort of savings are you talking about by swapping over to A rated devices? If it saves a tenner a year for each appliance then im not doing it.... but if it is a fiver a month.... then i might consider it!

Thanks

HappyMJ

It's a tenner a year. You should have an energy label on some of your appliances and can compare to new ones. There is some savings to be had but they are not much. If you don't have an energy label then assume it uses about 25% more electricity than what is on a label of a similar appliance. Then work out the savings. You can also look at the article on energy labels on Wikipedia for some more information.

penrhyn

Better to take some energy saving measures with what you already have.
Only fill your kettle with the water you require.
Use only enough water in the saucepan to cover your vegetables, the same applies when having a bath.

DVardysShadow

Don't replace working appliances in order to improve the energy rating.

When it comes to time to replace the appliances, make your choice on energy saving as part of your purchasing decision.

rogerblack

x12yhp wrote: »

Hi guys,

I am in debate about appliances. I have washer/dryer, oven, hob, fridge and freezer which are all 15+ years old. Realistically, what sort of savings are you talking about by swapping over to A rated devices? If it saves a tenner a year for each appliance then im not doing it.... but if it is a fiver a month.... then i might consider it!

Thanks

Your first point of call is to get a plug-in energy meter.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Power-Meter-Energy-Monitor-Esocket-Plug-in-KWH-Watt-Electricity-Meter-UK-/220940130975?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item33710eda9f

Similar to this (I have no experience with this seller).
This will let you measure what your appliances are actually using.

The device that will benefit most will probably be the washing machine/drier.
A new energy efficient one may use 20p or so worth less per load than an older one.

Fridge/freezer - unless they are faulty you are unlikely to save more than 30 quid a year for similar ones.
(but check - yours may be performing poorly due to age sucking a lot of power).

Swapping over to an induction hob can reduce your power use by 20-30% or so over conventional electric.

But the first step is to measure - then to work out how many kWh/year the new thing will save you.

_BUT_.

Consider that if a large freezer costs you 3 pounds extra in electricity to run than a small freezer - if you have the space you probably want the large freezer.
this means you can stock up on food when it's on offer.
The savings from this will _DWARF_ 3 pounds a year.

MillicentBystander

We have friends who ripped out an old, probably inefficient but perfectly adequately performing boiler and replaced it with a super duper efficient system that cost £3,500! :eek: They then proceeded to tell people that they were saving almost £150/yr on their gas bill. These are (ordinarily) intelligent people but they were shocked when I told them it would probably take 20 years+ to actually save anything (IF the boiler lasted that long, big IF)! They genuinely hadn't thought about including the cost of replacing the old boiler in their 'savings' figure. Moral of story? Unless your appliance is kaput/dangerous, it generally doesn't make money saving sense to replace it!

Pincher

Beyond economic repair depends how much it costs to fix, not whether it's fixable.

I got into an argument with a retired gentleman who was very proud of his fix everything instead of buying new attitude, along with a lovely supportive wife, who has been long suffering with old junk for years all her married life, no doubt. As it turns out, the reason that he can keep it all going is because he was a technician who had every tool under the sun, including some micro-welding equipment so he can even patch up tiny holes in fridge copper pipes.

Let it go at a sensible point. I grabbed the £400 Scrappage (not the BG con, the government one). It's £400 I wouldn't get today if it went kaput.