MSE Guide: Energy Saving Tips 2 December 2021 at 5:28PM edited 2 December 2021 at 5:31PM in Energy 35 replies 9.2K views

wild666

Mikemoreton36 said:

Octopus suggest a combi boiler radiator water temp of 50°. Most of the advice from boiler companies suggest a temp of 70°. The lower the temp, the longer it will take to heat a space so, other than improving the efficiency of the boiler, the saving on gas is marginal. Lower temps means the room temp will take longer to reach the set temp and your boiler will be on longer thus consuming more gas. Remember the old adage"there's no such thing as a free lunch". 

I lowered the boiler temperature for heating to 50 degrees and saved 50% on the heating in one day. Since then I have lowered it further and 4 days of heating, 28 hours, cost me £10.73 whereas one day ay 50 degrees cost me a couple of pence short of  £4  for 7 hours heating at 18 degrees but with the temperature on the boiler 39 degrees and 16 degrees thermostat cost only £2.69 per day. That's a saving of £1.29 per day or £38.70 per month.  

wild666

Millennium said:

APOLOGIES ALL

It appears that my energy meter is faulty so please ignore the results below.

I have a new meter and the washing machine and tumble dryer draw 0.4w in standby which upon further investigation is the EU's current target for standby equipment.  0.4w works out to about £1.20/year which I can live with!
I will do further readings with my working meter and post my results!

There are some great energy saving tips here and provided by the likes of the Energy Savings Trust, but I decided to invest in an energy meter (a Brennenstuhl PM 230 for transparency) and take a few readings myself!  I was very surprised by some of the results.  If someone from MSE would like a copy of my spreadsheet I will be happy to share.

For appliances that are on/in standby (but not in use) I took the watt reading (spot rate) as this is likely to be a consistent value.  I did wait a few minutes before taking the readings in case there is more draw at startup.

The first surprise.  The microwave.  It's a Bosch with no clock or digital display, and has two knobs, one for power and one for the timer.  All very simple.  I cannot find a model number on it but it looks like a Bosch HMT72G450B.  Power consumption when idle, 11.8w.  This doesn't sound much, but that equates to £35 per year!

Other surprises.
The washing machine, current model, electronic is drawing 25.85w in standby.  £77 per year.  The tumble dryer (yes - I know!) 11.85w and £35 per year.  The most expensive drying cycle I measured was 17p.  The standby rate works out at about 10p per day, meaning that 2 days on standby is more expensive that running it!

Power supplies that tend to power house telephones tend to be around 9w (£28 per year) and seem to remain at 9w where or not there is a phone in the cradle to charge.

The dishwasher is measured at 14.5w (£43) about 12p per day while running an Eco load costs 27p per run and an Auto 38p.  So again, it's not running it that costs the money!  I also measured the dishwasher's power consumption with the machine 'off' but plugged in, and 'on' but not running - i.e. just the display was illuminated.  Both states measured at 14.5w.

Nespresso machine, 12w, £35.  bread maker, 16w £47.50 per year.

I have more data if anyone would like to know!!

Has anyone else taken any similar measurements?  Needless to say everything is now switched off at the plug when not in use!
 

I now go by the rule of "If it's not in use switch it off at the wall socket!" The exceptions being the fridge, freezer and router It's saved me 30 to 35% on my electric bill. Lowering the boiler and thermostat temperatures as also saved me a large amount on my gas bill, 80% over the 2021 usage.

marcantonio

Infrared lamps are a great way of heating the body quickly.
I have one under my desk (bought on amazon for ~£15) and it does a wonderful job at heating my feet and legs up whenever I feel cold. It uses a 100W bulb (which can probably be bought separately and used on any lamp) and I only switch it on for 5-10 minutes every hour or so, so it's pretty cheap to run.

Caravanjay

We have solar panels so I try to use the washing machine and dishwasher only when it's bright - even in the winter it's surprising how often this is possible! If it's a bright day I  boil the full kettle then fill two large thermos flasks with boiling water to use for drinks during the day and evening when the sun isn't shining.
When I run the shower the initial cold water goes into a bucket which I use to flush the loo - you really do not need to flush every single time you have a pee. I found this quote 'if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down'. Why are we using gallons of drinking quality water to flush every time we have a wee?

Mstty

Caravanjay said:

We have solar panels so I try to use the washing machine and dishwasher only when it's bright - even in the winter it's surprising how often this is possible! If it's a bright day I  boil the full kettle then fill two large thermos flasks with boiling water to use for drinks during the day and evening when the sun isn't shining.
When I run the shower the initial cold water goes into a bucket which I use to flush the loo - you really do not need to flush every single time you have a pee. I found this quote 'if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down'. Why are we using gallons of drinking quality water to flush every time we have a wee?

I once suggested on the forum that people take less showers.....that didn't go down well with some and broke out into a hygienic discussion lol

We do have half flushes for what are termed a number 1 mainly because urine has more minerals salts so stains.