Will this really make a difference to my energy bills?

Shedman

wild666 said:

Owleyes00 said:

Hi! I have always been a bit laissez-faire with regards to energy bills, set up the direct debit and never thought that much about it (bills were adjusted up or down and I never seemed to be using excessively). However I have recently moved to a much bigger property and with rising energy costs (although I am on a fix from my previous rate until June 22 which is nice!) I am trying to make some small changes to reduce my bills. The changes I have made are:
-turning things off at the plug when not using it
-keeping curtains drawn in rooms I’m
not using and keeping doors shut to keep rooms warm
-turning lights off when I leave a room and trying not to switch them on if I don’t need to
-running a sink of water to do my morning ablutions rather than letting the tap run
-washing on 20 and 30 or eco 40 for underwear, reducing drier usage to pants, towels and bedsheets and trying to do fewer loads a week
-switching radiators off in rooms I don’t use e.g. in my office at the weekend
-conscious use of my heating 
-cooking more meals in the slowcooker rather than on the hob
-switching to showers on most days and trying to limit myself to one bath a week (I love a bath and previously would have one most days)

I am finding it all very tedious and am wondering if it’s all going to make a significant difference to my energy bills? If it’s only going to shave a few pounds off I’m not sure I can be bothered! Is there more I can be doing (without punishing myself!)??

Turning appliances off rather than leaving them in standby mode will save money the more appliances turned off the more the savings will be. TV, surround sound equipment, DVD player, stereo, Desktop/Laptop PC, Smart speakers, games consoles, charging leads, left plugged in with the socket switched on, kettle, cooker, microwave, extractor fans, shower, all those appliances draw power left switched on. Try it for a day, week, month, taking a reading at the start and at the end or regular intervals. In a month it could save 60 to 70 kWh, if you pay 20p per kWh that's  £14 per month.

I'd be mighty surprised if turning off things that are in standby (especially if they are not ancient devices) would save 2 kWh a day as you suggest.  Most only consume 1 to 2 watts in standby.  Alexa's and the wifi router / mesh discs and Sky/Freeview Recorder boxes probably consume the most (3 to 6 watts each..I've got 8 Alexas and 5 mesh discs incl router and from my testing they consume around 65-80 watts a day in total) but you'd want them left on anyway otherwise kind of defeats the objective. Even my computer in sleep mode only uses 5-8 watts.  Somebody on another thread did find that a 12v transformer heater for their fish tank was consuming a lot but I suspect it was faulty.  

There have also been arguments put forward that suggest that the additional stress on electrical components from starting up from cold rather than standby could shorten their lifespan so the saving in electric could well be offset by the need to replace more often.  Not sure if there is any credence in that though.

I have worked out that by going around and switching everything off it would only save less than the wife pouring herself an extra Gin & Tonic a week...but I'm not brave enough to suggest that so I guess if I want to save a few pennies might have to start turning things off instead 😀

Vegastare

I'm not sure if this helps, but I was told at an energy fair the local council ran with Energy suppliers that any thing that heated up used more...and not to fill kettle up to far if only making one mug coffer.  As you mention washer on 30 degrees, led bulbs etx
 As others have said things on stand bye use.  Plus use microwave and cut back on hob and oven.  It is cheapest way to heat up cook food.

We had (via then energy company test) of tester , it was plugged in at socket in hall - and just after setting it up we turned of hall lights and pow what a drop....we have sunken ceiling spot lights along hall about five which all come on at once - the power they used was really high, so we soon changed them to LED .....

theoretica

Running the hot tap on autopilot but turning it off before you actually get hot water is pure waste of hot water into the pipes and I found an easy change to make - if I am going to wash my hands or rinse something in cold water it might as well come from the cold tap.

Hunting for drafts is generally a one time job with a decent payback. 

As others have said, the one time cost of buying LED lights then makes turning them off much less important.

Petriix

Jut to reiterate the point that things which generate heat use lots of energy and things which don't... don't!

• If it's sunny then leave the South facing curtains open so as to let in the heat from the sun in winter.
• Use the longest, lowest temperature cycles on your washing machine and dishwasher and let time, not heat be what cleans things.
• Only bother turning things off if you know they waste energy. My TV uses 1.5W in standby so no point.
• Simply turning your heating down and wearing warmer clothes will make a bigger difference than the other items combined.
• Air drying clothes will save masses of energy VS tumble drying (4-6kWh per load of washing adds up).
• If you have the choice, gas is about 1/4 of the price of electricity so heat things with gas if you can: run the shower via a gas boiler rather than an electric shower, boil water on the gas cooker rather than an electric kettle.
• Once you've paid to heat the space, retain as much of it as you can by keeping doors and windows shut. Don't to what my partner does and leave the door open while taking the recycling out!

I've checked what uses the background energy in my house and it boils down to the fridge-freezer (A+ rated) using about 100W when the compressor is running, two wifi routers using about 20-30W each and a few pieces of AV equipment which use a few Watts when left on (which I switch off when I remember).

I have a couple of very low power lights that stay on 24/7 using about 10W between them - the doorbell (which needs to stay on really), a 4W salt lamp (which absorbs moisture from the air when left off) and a 2W cooker hood light which illuminates a dark corner. Given that these are mostly covered by the solar panels when it's light, this costs me about £10 per year in total.

fly-catchers

I wish I hadn’t decided to switch off my old DVD recorder as now it has malfunctioned! Of course it might have been broken anyway but had been ok prior to this! But it only packed up after switching off at the wall for a few days.

Shedman

fly-catchers said:

I wish I hadn’t decided to switch off my old DVD recorder as now it has malfunctioned! Of course it might have been broken anyway but had been ok prior to this! But it only packed up after switching off at the wall for a few days.

Hence my earlier comment about the stress on electrical components through turning off completely and starting from 'cold' and the potential for shortened lifespans vs the minuscule saving from not leaving them on standby.  It generally is the initial surge on switch on that kills old electrical devices in my experience although I think a lot of newer devices have a 'softer' power on these days.

Brewer21

Turn freezers and fridges to near the minimum settings for winter.
We had had an additional freezer in the garage and got rid of it, the saving were noticeable immediately on the electric usage.

Reed_Richards

Shedman said:
Hence my earlier comment about the stress on electrical components through turning off completely and starting from 'cold' and the potential for shortened lifespans 

Computers have a built-in battery and in the case of desktop computer it was a small "watch" battery.  When the battery got old then leaving the computer off but plugged-in could keep a battery going but switching off the wall socket or unplugging the computer would run the battery down completely so it was not unknown to return from a holiday to find your computer had "died".  It would not surprise me if the same things apply to other electrical components that need to retain a little bit of memory and it's nothing to do with "stress". 

JohnM5206

"However I have recently moved to a much bigger property and with rising energy costs (although I am on a fix from my previous rate until June 22 which is nice!) "

I see this has not been questioned but it does raise the issue - Did you register with the existing supplier when you moved in, and how did you keep a fix from previous rate?
If not, all your attempts at saving could well fall flat since you are on a deemed tariff currently.

LaHostessAvecLaMostess

Reed_Richards said:

Shedman said:
Hence my earlier comment about the stress on electrical components through turning off completely and starting from 'cold' and the potential for shortened lifespans 

Computers have a built-in battery and in the case of desktop computer it was a small "watch" battery.  When the battery got old then leaving the computer off but plugged-in could keep a battery going but switching off the wall socket or unplugging the computer would run the battery down completely so it was not unknown to return from a holiday to find your computer had "died".  It would not surprise me if the same things apply to other electrical components that need to retain a little bit of memory and it's nothing to do with "stress". 

No, that's not really right.

With the computer being plugged in and with access to power it was not using the coin-cell battery at all and was instead in a low power state that kept the time.  When you switched it off completely it reverted to the coin-cell that had long since died.

Also, they're hardly small watch batteries unless your watch is absolutely monstrous.