How much electricity do you use in a day?

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

We average about 7 units a day, washing machine on at least once a day (occasionally twice or more). PC is on 15hours a day 5 out of 7 days, as is a amp/speakers (outputting upto ~100watt continuous average sine wave power (rms)).

Cooking is all done with electricity (electric steamer, electric rice cooker, electric oven, electric hob).

I want to move somewhere secluded so I can use a generator during the day, running it on WVO.

rag_doll

For anyone that's interested the info below is from www.!!!!!!/products/electrisave/electricity-monitor My o h bought one a few weeks ago, it's been a real eye-opener to see how much electricity different products use, & we never considered ourselves electricity-wasters!

The award-winning Electrisave is a wireless electricity usage monitor which shows you how much electricity you use at home, how much it costs you, and how much harmful C02 emissions you are contributing to the environment through your electricity usage – a valuable tool providing you and your family with the information you need to reduce electricity consumption saving you up to 25% on your electricity bill while doing your bit for the environment.

Cardew

rag_doll wrote: »

For anyone that's interested the info below is from www.!!!!!!/products/electrisave/electricity-monitor My o h bought one a few weeks ago, it's been a real eye-opener to see how much electricity different products use, & we never considered ourselves electricity-wasters!

The award-winning Electrisave is a wireless electricity usage monitor which shows you how much electricity you use at home, how much it costs you, and how much harmful C02 emissions you are contributing to the environment through your electricity usage – a valuable tool providing you and your family with the information you need to reduce electricity consumption saving you up to 25% on your electricity bill while doing your bit for the environment.

This has been covered lots of times.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=86203&highlight=electrisave

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=393207&page=2&highlight=electrisave

I and a lot of others think that there are devices costing £6 or so that are far better than the electrisave. This cut and pasted from another thread.

"I am sorry to pour cold water on your device but it is nowhere near as effective in demonstrating savings as the £6 device.

Nearly all the devices that consume the major amount of electricity(Fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, cooker, iron, fan heater etc etc etc) are thermostatically controlled, or have variable power usage, so the Electrisave has no way of telling you how much electricity they use, except instantaneously and not over a period of time.

To give but one example. Take your freezer which when the compressor is running uses, say, 500 Watts(0.5kW or half a unit)

Switch off your freezer and the probability is that the electrisave will register no change at all. That is because most of the time it is using no electricity at all. This is because the compressor runs only for a small period of time.

However if you happen to switch it off and catch it during the short period of time when the compressor is running it will indicate that you are saving 5pence an hour.(set to 10p/kWh) Well you could deduce then that your freezer costs £36 a month to run.(or nothing) How do you know the cost of running your freezer? - You simply have no idea with the electrisave.

Plugging the freezer into a cheap £6 device and leave for a while and it will measure the exact consumption and cost which is probably in the region of £4 a month.

Take your washing machine. When the heater is on the electrisave will show it uses 30p an hour. If your machine runs for 1.5 hours you might deduce that it costs 45p for the cycle, the probability is that it uses less than 10p.

moonrakerz

I last posted on this thread a couple of weeks back. I've read thru' the posts since then and it really just reinforces my earlier point that most people don't have a clue how much electricity various appliances use - 2kWh for a for 'phone charger !!

This leads to these people falling prey to a lot of the JUNK sold as being "green" and "good for the planet".

£30 for an Eco kettle ! brilliant ! An electric kettle is one of the most efficient electrical devices around, if you want to save money - buy a kettle for £4.99 (Argos) and put less water in it ! There you are, I've just saved you all £25 ! My address is ................

AND, £70, to tell you have much electricity you are using ! this is an absolute corker ! I have one of those in a cupboard in my house and it was free.

Poor old Cardew is gamely putting up posts trying to be polite when he explains that most of these "gizmos" are not quite what they claim to be. I'll be a little more blunt - most of these things are a CON and a waste of money !

Cardew

moonrakerz wrote: »

I last posted on this thread a couple of weeks back. I've read thru' the posts since then and it really just reinforces my earlier point that most people don't have a clue how much electricity various appliances use - 2kWh for a for 'phone charger !!

This leads to these people falling prey to a lot of the JUNK sold as being "green" and "good for the planet".

£30 for an Eco kettle ! brilliant ! An electric kettle is one of the most efficient electrical devices around, if you want to save money - buy a kettle for £4.99 (Argos) and put less water in it ! There you are, I've just saved you all £25 ! My address is ................

AND, £70, to tell you have much electricity you are using ! this is an absolute corker ! I have one of those in a cupboard in my house and it was free.

Poor old Cardew is gamely putting up posts trying to be polite when he explains that most of these "gizmos" are not quite what they claim to be. I'll be a little more blunt - most of these things are a CON and a waste of money !

But nearly all the the Electrisave website is in a green colour and even the print is in green( I assume the quote was a cut and paste) so anything 'Green' must be great value and even if it isn't, it saves the world from Global Warming.;)

To be serious, it is not someone's fault if they don't understand the basics of electricity. So if anyone pastes on here in good faith, I believe any reply(initially) should be polite. Bluntness comes later!

rizla01

Anyone know what leaving a computer + 19" screen (LCD) + printer on 24/7 costs?

Computer goes into hibernate after 1 hour and screen switches off?

We are currently (get it?) using 9 units daily. 2 of us in a 2 Bed flat.

12 dec to 19 March cost £122.

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

rizla01 wrote: »

Anyone know what leaving a computer + 19" screen (LCD) + printer on 24/7 costs?

Computer goes into hibernate after 1 hour and screen switches off?

It depends on what the pc is doing - encoding video/audio or playing modern games it will be running at a few hundred watts. Doing nothing it will be using a hundred watts or so.

It's going to average at about 150watt (more if you leave the printer on all the time, and about 50watts for the monitor if you don't switch that off when you get up).

See here too.

So roughly it would cost you 25-40p per day, depending on what you do with your pc.

Alikay

We moved into this house about 6 months ago and have been averaging 33 units per day :eek:
Don't really know what's going on, and why its so high, but there are 2 adults & 3 teenagers living here. Washing machine is on a couple of times a day (econ 7, usually) plus dishwasher overnight. Water is heated by the GCH, but the shower is electric.

We changed to Npower (previous owners had British Gas) which brought the bills down a bit, but I'm still horrified by the amount of electricity being used. We didn't use so much in our last house, and our lifestyle was the same!

There ARE times when there are 3 laptops, a PC and the TV going all at the same time, but its not often, and the kids are either asleep or downstairs when they're in (only TV is in lounge). We're all clean-freaks and shower daily - twice if going out at night or have played sport.......but surely that wouldn't make our bils so high?

Cardew

rizla01 wrote: »

Anyone know what leaving a computer + 19" screen (LCD) + printer on 24/7 costs?

Computer goes into hibernate after 1 hour and screen switches off?

As KDHK indicated in the post above, that is really a 'how long is a piece of string question.

My 19" LCD uses about 25 Watts and general use of my modern desktop PC over a few hours averages out at about a(measured) 130 Watts. My printer on standby has a very low consumption.

So left on 24/7 my set up would probably cost about 30p a day, but of course much less if I set it to hibernate.

If you really want to know buy one of those cheap power measuring devices(£6 to £15 and leave your set up plugged in for 24 hours.

rizla01

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule wrote: »

It depends on what the pc is doing - encoding video/audio or playing modern games it will be running at a few hundred watts. Doing nothing it will be using a hundred watts or so.

It's going to average at about 150watt (more if you leave the printer on all the time, and about 50watts for the monitor if you don't switch that off when you get up).

See here too.

So roughly it would cost you 25-40p per day, depending on what you do with your pc.

Excellent article KDHK.

Thanks for your input.

Big dilemna now but since 'puters have only a 3-4 year life span before replace/upgrade neccesary I think I'll turn off, in future.

from CARDEW - As KDHK indicated in the post above, that is really a 'how long is a piece of string question.

My 19" LCD uses about 25 Watts and general use of my modern desktop PC over a few hours averages out at about a(measured) 130 Watts. My printer on standby has a very low consumption.

So left on 24/7 my set up would probably cost about 30p a day, but of course much less if I set it to hibernate.

If you really want to know buy one of those cheap power measuring devices(£6 to £15 and leave your set up plugged in for 24 hours.

Actually we too are doing a meter reading table but wanted to know where to start on the cutbacks. Having read through this thread have taken note of all that has been said but no-where mentioned the good ol PC. 100 watts per day is a lightbulb and we are very careful about turning those off.