Tips for cutting electricity costs?

londonlydia

Hello all,

Has anyone got some good tips for how we can save on our electricity bill? Our situation:

Just looking through my quarterly statement for my dual fuel, and whilst my gas spend is very low (in fact I overpaid last time based on me not submitting a reading and estimate was too high-- so I actually paid -£3 this quarter), my electricity isn't. Our electricity charge was roughly £100 for the quarter and I'm sure we can get it down. Our heating and hot water is gas.

We live in a 3 floor 4 bed house, but its just me and my partner and we both work. We only moved in back in jan, and we're doing lots of DIY so suspect some of the costs may be power tools, though I'm not sure how much they contribute? We have a big American fridge that must be a chunk of it. Our washer and tumble dryer we use a lot, although I bought the most energy efficient I could find ( our dryer is a heat pump one). We watch tv and have TiVo, so that stays on standby? Other than that we occasionally use the kettle, microwave, etc and charge phones, laptop etc.

One thing I'm really interested in is we have lots of spot lights in our kitchen diner, probably around 24 bulbs in total plus under counter strips. None of these are energy saving bulbs. Would it be worth switching them or will it not make much difference?

closed

make sure the fridge <4C /freezer <-18C temperatures/thermostat are set correctly (not too low, not too high) and defrost and clean the back - thermometers cost around £1 from supermarkets/pound shops, use a washing line instead of dryer, make sure you fully load the washing machine and wash as much as you can at 40C, and look at the lighting wattages - led's or energy savers are very low wattage. Boil only the water you need in the kettle.

£100/quarter isn't bad.

londonlydia

Only problem with line drying is that I'm only in for daytime at the weekends and I don't want to leave out washing when I'm out. I try and use the line when I can, but I need good weather (been a wet year lol!). I try and dry internally too on clotheshorses but am limited by space and not wanting too much damp in the house...

closed

Depending on the rating of the fridge/freezer, it may be the biggest overall user of electricity, as it's on 24/7 (apart from when it's at temp).

24 halogen lights may also use a fair bit if they are on often

dogshome

Those 24 kitchen spotlights are probably GU10 bulbs that drag 50watts each, so if they are all on they are burning 1.4 kwh an hour.

24 spots in a kitchen seems a bit excessive, so as quick partial fix simply remove some of the bulbs - Ideally they should all be swapped for LED's that burn appx just. 3 Watts each - Quality LED's will cost appx £10 each, but they do have a very, very long life

mililly

Hi, I wish my electric was only 100 a quarter. I pay more than that a month. Ive had some good replies to my queries and one was to buy an electricity monitor so I can find out what uses more electricity and then I can find out how to adjust things to save money.

lemontart

little things like if you have electric oven/shower with the power light on the switch turn that off when not in use other wise using leccy 24/7 may not be much but why pay for something not actually using

I am putting those battery power led lights in every room too as back up and to save on the leccy bill as my over head lights in lounge have 3 bulbs in and there is 2 of them

londonlydia

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm interested in those energy monitors, but didnt realise you could get them yourself, I thought you had to get them through your supplier. I'll definitely look into that, as I'm interested in what certain appliances are using.

lemontart: good point about the shower light, we have a downstairs spare shower which we dont use but it has an electric power shower in it which is left on standby, I'll turn that off and just put it on when I need it.

dogshome: they are indeed GU10s. The 24 bulbs are spread across an openplan kitchen and diner...but the diner we are currently using as our living room area whilst we do up the actual living room. Think I might start replacing the kitchen ones (12 of them) with LEDs at least as I use my kitchen lights every day.

NowRetired

good point about the shower light

I don't think that will make much of a difference as they use about

0.06watts of electricity.


Say 6p a year.


But then again every little helps.


bring back the sarcastic smiley

londonlydia

NowRetired wrote: »

I don't think that will make much of a difference as they use about

0.06watts of electricity.

Say 6p a year.

But then again every little helps.

bring back the sarcastic smiley

I know it's only 6p but I think it's about habit more than anything...

st999

Switching the switch on and off at least once a day will probably cause the switch mechanical damage and cause it to fail a lot quicker than if it was left on all the time.

Is a new switch costing anything between £15 to £100 or more worth saving 6 pence a year?