Power saving myths

Paul_Varjak

OK. you have a large electricity bill - but it's hardly likely to be due to appliances on standby.

Have you thought that your meters may be operating incorrectly - recording the wrong amount used? Perhaps the timing of switching between day/night rate is wrong?

Could a neighbouring flat be connected to your supply? You can check this quite easily. Unplug all devices in your flat when your neigbour is in and using his electric (eg TV). Then look at meter. If it is still recording - switch off your mains supply and see if his TV goes off.

If you don't believe it won't happen, I can tell you that one of my lights turned out to be connected to the neighbouring flat. So they were paying for some of my electricity! This sort of thing does happen by accident but, on some occasions, it is fraudulent. It also constitutes a safety risk.

Ask your landlord (if you have one) when the last electric safety check was done.

The other possibility is that they have just wrongly estimated your bill!

calleyw

I agree with Paul there is something very wrong here.

I have just moved from a 1 bedroom flat to a 3 bedroom house. Now only 3 things have changed more rooms in the house. Cook by gas and a brand new A rated fridge freezer.

I have not had a full bill yet. But we had one for 6 weeks and that was £14. And I am home all day. And I do go around turning things off. In the flat where I had a older fridge freezer and cooked by electric the bill would be around £45 come winter or summer.

I think you need to do what Paul suggests. As well as getting them to check the meter.

Not that this would the reading that high. But how do you heat water. Have you left your hot water on. As that could add a bit but not that much.

Good luck in sorting this out.

Yours

Calley

refusnik

Gary_Delaney wrote:

My leccy bill is 700 a year for small flat. Too much I think. So I'm trying to cut it. Have already moved to cheapest supplier.

Gary, I went through exactly same excercise. Have a look here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=56314

Forget the gadgets. Heating up the hot water during the day was killing me!

carpool72

In the same vein, does anyone know how much extra an inefficient fridge and freezer cost? We have a v old fridge & v old chest freezer, both of which don't close properly and I'm trying to persuade DH that it's in our best interests financially to replace them (as well as the fact that they're a pain & probably don't store food safely, but since we haven't had food poisoning yet those arguments have fallen on stony ground!).

I read somewhere that they can add 1/3 to your leccy bill...

calleyw

carpool72 wrote:

In the same vein, does anyone know how much extra an inefficient fridge and freezer cost? We have a v old fridge & v old chest freezer, both of which don't close properly and I'm trying to persuade DH that it's in our best interests financially to replace them (as well as the fact that they're a pain & probably don't store food safely, but since we haven't had food poisoning yet those arguments have fallen on stony ground!).

I read somewhere that they can add 1/3 to your leccy bill...

As i said in my one of my posts above. I have just moved from a one bedroom flat to a 3 bedroom house. Bought an A rated fridge freezer. Cook by gas rather than by electric cost of leccy bill for 6 weeks £14 with me at home all day. So should be about £30 for a whole quarter.

In the flat we cooked by electric but I rarely used the oven/hob because of the cost used an leccy steamer. The fridge freezer was slightly smaller than the one we have now and was e rated. I know we bought it 6 and bit years ago as we needed something having just moved in. And it need to fit the space as well.

We even had a energy saving plug thing on it as well. The leccy bill was always £40 something a quarter. Normally £43-£48 a quarter.

So not having a electric cooker and having an A rated fridge freezer looks to be having a £13-£15 a quarter difference. So about £52-£60 a year difference. I paid £232 for the fridge freezer. So in two and half years it will have paid for itself.

Yours

Calley

leccylite

Some simple checks that can be done;

1. Turn off everything and see if you meter still moves (if it is of the mechanical wheel type) or still pulses (as most modern electronic meters do).
2. Plug in each appliance that you tend to leave plugged in, one in turn, and see if any of them make the meter move or pulse) significantly faster than anything esle.

garysletters

carpool72 wrote:

In the same vein, does anyone know how much extra an inefficient fridge and freezer cost? We have a v old fridge & v old chest freezer, both of which don't close properly and I'm trying to persuade DH that it's in our best interests financially to replace them (as well as the fact that they're a pain & probably don't store food safely, but since we haven't had food poisoning yet those arguments have fallen on stony ground!).

I read somewhere that they can add 1/3 to your leccy bill...

If a freezer's seal is not sealing properly, then you will get bad ice build up. This actually insulates the food from the cold gasses trying to cool the freezer, thus the temperature in the freezer goes up. to counter this your freezer works harder and longer to try to keep it cool. Eventually the condenser/motor will overwork itself and pack up.

It will be using lots more power, but how much depends on how bad the seal is.

id10t

Not really answering the question, but the nerds might find
it of interest, since we have already talked about the spinning
meter wheel.

This is a "thing" I built to help me work on a faulty guitar amp
http://www.id10t.eclipse.co.uk/current_limiter.jpg

but it also functions as a visual aid to the amount of current a
device is drawing. More current means it costs more to run.

Basically the light bulb glows brighter the more current the
device draws. eg, When I play my guitar amp/stereo at low
volumes the bulb glows dimly. As I crank up the volume, the
bulb gets brighter, so I can "see" the power draw.

Using different wattage bulbs (40W/60W/100W) is like setting
the sensitivity. But you may have to be careful about the voltage
drop across the bulb - my disclaimer if you damage your TV.

You plug the limiter into the wall, then the device into the
limiter.

ID

gibby

as a bad example - a friend of mine who has no ethics at all has 4 flats and he lives in the basement. Recently one of his tenants realised her flat ran all the security outdoor lighting - these things up your bill massively - when a smaller unit with an energy efficient bulb will do the job almost as well.

The tenant below was heating almost the entire building with his gas boiler unitl another tenant stated he still had hot water & heating despite the meter not being in credit.

another tenant found his electricity bill was massive despite only being there 1 or 2 nights a week.

to sum it all up the whole building is not seperated as required into each flat.
as the tenants change so often they usually notice.

another extreme example is the law firm in the 70s who were paying for more electricity than their office could consume. The bulbs lasted no more than 10 days.
After the supply was investigated the meters were working overtime.

Also the telephone was ringing the spekaing clock faster than it could be dialed on the old round dial.

Finally it stoped when one female worker went on holiday for a month but on her return the problems started - the bulbs were poping and the photocopiers were chucking going nuts.

it appeared the poor girl suffered from RSPK - reccurrent spontenous psycho kinesis.
or poltergeist activity - now know as sliders syndrome.

some ppl have an effect on electrical equipment - as she was subconciously calling the speaking clock.

when she left the job to a better job it all stopped for her and the company.

sorry to digrese but it does happen


Gibby

Money_Saver_13

1. Turn everything off and check to see if the meter is still going around.
2. How many people live in the flat? How many adults and how many children?
3. Read you meters and phone in the reading to your suppliers regularly. They may have you on a budget plan based on previous tenants.
4. Do you have electric central heating? Is this by night storage heaters?
5. If you use an immersion heater to heat up your water - make sure it is insulated. Turn it on when you need it. Check to see if it has a switch to allow you to heat only part of the tank.