It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Jellytotts

After reading the "mse guide to cost of living" this morning I read a few bits out to DH, one of the ones that sparked with him is that the wifi router could be costing £100 a year to run.  Ours is in a very inaccessible place but he's decided to wire up some long switches so it can be turned off more easily (luckily he knows what he's doing with electrics) and declared that the wifi router will get turned off when we go to bed.  He suddenly then decided that 2 of the 3 "Alexa" devices that are plugged in around the house can go too (I hate the blummin things and didn't want them in the first place).  I found a work around for being able to turn the stereo off at the wall rather than standby too (again, another inaccessible plug where it was).  Another few pounds saved a year hopefully.

bellabella

Where can i find the MSE guide to cost of living?

euronorris

Be aware that if you turn off your WiFi router, and have a ring doorbell (for example), it then won't work overnight. We've been broken into before, so we'll absorb the cost of keeping the router on 24/7.

Living_proof

I was told when I first started working from home by the IT department NOT to turn off the router unless it needed rebooting. Otherwise the internet provider will take days trying different ways to make your router more efficient and in doing so might slow everything down. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will come along and explain this or deny it.

Jellytotts

bellabella said:

Where can i find the MSE guide to cost of living?

It was in this mornings MSE email.

KxMx

@Jellytotts

Turning your router off and on unnecessarily is absolutely not a good idea, it will affect your speeds and potentially the stability of your line.

Your ISP will read a switch off as a problem and them try to stabilise your line, a long process which makes the speed go up & down and generally be unstable.

Repeatedly switching off will kick start that process again and again. 

newlywed

bellabella said:

Where can i find the MSE guide to cost of living?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/cost-of-living-survival-kit/

EssexHebridean

euronorris said:

Be aware that if you turn off your WiFi router, and have a ring doorbell (for example), it then won't work overnight. We've been broken into before, so we'll absorb the cost of keeping the router on 24/7.

Another point on this is that an increasing number of people are being switched across to voice-over-internet phone lines, and still others live in an area where they rely on "wifi calling" to boost an otherwise unreliable mobile connection. Potentially by turning the router off you are leaving yourself in a position where if you needed to call 999 in the night you may find yourself unable to do so. 

Effician

Quite happy to turn our router off overnight, fortunately no gamers/business users/4k streaming/voip/door bells etc, yes we lose a little speed but fast enough for our needs & worth the small saving.

marycanary

Effician said:

Quite happy to turn our router off overnight, fortunately no gamers/business users/4k streaming/voip/door bells etc, yes we lose a little speed but fast enough for our needs & worth the small saving.

If you are happy with reducing the speed of your current internet package perhaps you could get a deal with lower speeds when you next change provider (assuming you are not on the lowest possible tariff at the moment). This might save more than the electricity saving from turning off each night.