Saving Money.

James365

I could swear I read on some website that spoke of using my new In-Home Display for my new smart meters (from when they get installed) to find out the cost of any appliance and switching them off and trying one at a time. This seems a little daunting and time-consuming. What I was wanting to know is if this was recommended, or best manner in order to start saving £ on my energy bills from day one. What would people recommend I do, and what are the best things I can do?

I have spoken to Sky TV who have recommended that I leave my Sky Q Box on at the mains to allow it to do recordings and also its (regular or not regular) software updates, and I also know my TV and Apple TV Box does not have any lights on when I turn them off at the remote, therefore I assume that they do not go into standby as no light is on them the only light is on my Sky Q 2TB Box. I aim to turn all lights off when not in use, turn off switches that are not in use and work out the best way to save £ on my phone charger in my bedroom as I have got into the routine of charging overnight and by the cable rather than a wireless charger (which is better?).

Any tips and advise is welcome!

Robin9

Start by reading your meter (that's the one in your garage or in an outdoor box - not the IHD)  regularly to get an understanding of what your total consumption is and making sure you give those readings to your supplier, even when your Smarts are installed.

The consumption of your phone charger, Sky etc really is quite small - the big consumers are electric heating, water heating, showers, old freezers.

You will save the most money by keeping on top of your bills and getting good tariffs.

Look at this Energy thread often - see the people who get in a mess - and those who keep on top of things.

Gerry1

• You don't need a smart meter to see how much an appliance uses: just look at the red flashing light on the meter (unless it has a rotating disc): it will tell you how many flashes (impulse) mean you've used 1kWh so it's easy to work it out.

• Also look at the rating plate of each appliance to see how many watts or kW it can use.

• Don't use electricity for any water or room heating, except for a kettle.

• Make sure you know your annual consumption in kWh from actual meter readings, never estimates.  Ignore all personal projections and claims about savings, just compare the annual costs of those kWh and check whether separate suppliers are cheaper than dual fuel.  Start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' and don't use any auto switching services.  Send monthly meter readings and keep your own records.
  

jbuchanangb

Set your heating thermostats to a sensible level to keep the place around 19degC. Consider the light bulbs in rooms you use the most, and change to LED. In this house when I moved in 2 years ago there were about 30 50watt halogens, including 5 in the kitchen and 10 in the bedroom. 250w used in kitchen and 500watt in bedroom. Kitchen used a lot, bedroom not so much but changed them all to 6.5w LED. Set yourself up a spreadsheet to keep records of your energy consumption. I started mine in 1983, and it's still going strong through multiple changes of supplier, and one house move. And of course as @Robin9 says keep on top of the bills and get good tariffs.
When the chap comes to install the smart meters, make sure you note down the readings of the outgoing meters, and the incoming ones. Many mistakes have happened when meter changes aren't handled properly by the billing system.

Petriix

Gerry1 said:

• Don't use electricity for any water or room heating, except for a kettle.

I'm genuinely baffled by this advice. Water heating with electricity is ~ 5 x as expensive as using gas. Why does a kettle get a special exemption?

We switched to using our gas hob for boiling water even though we have solar panels because we rarely boil the kettle when we're generating sufficient excess to cover the 3kW demand.

Gerry1

Unlike electric radiators, electric showers and immersion heaters, an electric kettle is used only for very short periods, so it's unlikely to generate large bills.  There's usually a filling scale so there's no wasted hot water, and a plastic jug probably has lower thermal mass than a metal kettle on a gas hob.  Some of the heat from the gas will escape around the sides and it won't switch off automatically so it's less efficient.  For many people the speed and convenience of an electric kettle can justify any marginal difference in running costs. 

Another exemption would be an electric blanket which uses watts rather than kilowatts.

macman

Rather then fretting about the negligible amount of electricity consumed by your router, Sky box, phone charger etc,  you could simply turn down the heating by 1C and you'd probably save 10 times more energy that way.
75-80% of the energy usage in your home is for space heating and DHW.

David28

When I make coffee I put 2 cupfuls of water in the kettle and it takes 1 minute to boil. 50 watts on a 3kW kettle
The same 2 cupfuls .of water take 5 minutes on my gas ring and probably uses 100 watts and I have to boil more water because of the evaporation of some of it.
OK 100 watts of gas might be cheaper than 50 watts of electricity but think of the convenience 

Petriix

Ballpark figures it takes ~ 100Wh to heat 1l of water from 12 degrees to 99 degrees C. Boiling the kettle 3 times per day for a week is roughly 2kWh so ~ 100kWh per year or £12.50 on my electric tariff. With the losses associated with gas that could be 150kWh or £3.75 on my gas tariff. An amount of the wasted gas energy will actually be useful heat in the winter. A saving of ~ £8 is not entirely trivial; especially as part of a wider effort to economise power usage.