Background Electricity Usage 8760 hours a year

Benny2020

Measured my overnight consumption last night, 70w an hour between midnight and 7am.
Fridge, freezer and router.

Ultrasonic

Ant555 said:

Xbigman said:

I would say, is it really that inconvenient to flick a few switches when I go to bed? For me it isn't.

WhatsApp messages on the family group chat 2 weeks ago..

"The XBox isnt working, ive tried everything"

"everything? Even switching it on at the plug?"

"its working now"

About half the troubleshooting I do at work is similar!

I should check if my PS5 uses any meaningful power even after a full shutdown.

Gerry1

Benny2020 said:

Measured my overnight consumption last night, 70w an hour between midnight and 7am.
Fridge, freezer and router.

Not a valid measurement.

Presumably you meant that in those seven hours you used 490Wh (0.49kWh) of energy, from which you calculated that the average power drawn during those seven hours was 70W?

If you just looked at an energy monitor or IHD and saw 70W, that could be very misleading.  The instantaneous power might well be 70W but if a minute or two later the fridge or freezer kicks in then the reading might be 150W.  Half an hour later they might both have stopped cooling, and the instantaneous power might then be just 8W drawn by the router.

Energy is the equivalent of how many bucketfuls you've used (similar to litres), Power is the equivalent of how fast the pump is delivering (litres/second).  Or the distance you travelled (miles on the odometer) compared to speed (miles/h) shown by the speedometer.

Sorry to preach, but it's critically important to understand the difference between Energy and Power; they are not the same, and if you confuse them you could infer some very wrong conclusions.

Benny2020

"Presumably you meant that in those seven hours you used 490Wh (0.49kWh) of energy, from which you calculated that the average power drawn during those seven hours was 70W?"

This

Benny2020

I have 3 monitors, one gives me a reading of my solar power, current, daily, weekly, monthly totals, another is my iboost buddy which gives a NET reading ( solar generation minus current usage) and another which stores data over time and can tell me total usage over the last hour/hours/days.

[Deleted User]

cx6 said:

Ultrasonic said:

cx6 said:

Something like this used on a router of TV might pay for itself quite quickly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Status-S24HRSQT3-Square-Mechanical-Timer/dp/B01L4P5EYG/ref=asc_df_B01L4P5EYG/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232042431268&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11350190594533851001&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-613531797552&psc=1

For a TV using less than 0.5 W it would take years to recoup the cost, so best find out what power is being used first. 

Edit: missed the router comment - I wouldn't use one on a router personally.

Yes definitely measure your TV standby power first. My TV is old and uses about 3-4W on standby.

Re router. prior to the timer my 8W router was on 24 hrs so used 8 x 8760 in a year

With the timer - timer uses 1 x 8760, router is on 8am to 10pm so now uses 8 x 8760 x 14/24

Saving @ 28p I work out just over £6.00 a year., more after October. £5 cost of timer not included.

Note: if everyone is also out at work / school etc then the router can be timed to be off all day too so the savings would be a lot bigger. For example, if the router was timed to be on only say 4pm to 10pm the savings would be about £11 a year on a 8w router and 1w timer

Turning your router off isn't a good idea as it can play havoc with your line speeds. It takes a few hours after turning it on for the line speed to stabilize and settle down. Every time you turn it off and back on again you go back to square one. 
They are designed to run 24/7 for this reason.
Also you are cutting the connection to devices that may run updates or do other tasks over night.   

Slinky

What are people using to test power/energy consumption please? We don't smart meter so no IHD.

victor2

Slinky said:

What are people using to test power/energy consumption please? We don't smart meter so no IHD.

Meter readings if you're looking at whole house usage. I use a plug-in monitor for individual electrical appliances that have a plug on them.

matelodave

One of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/energy-monitor-plug/s?k=energy+monitor+plug+in&msclkid=2a6c7534a94211eca9a97b1a1ab92885 to check individual items or by reading the leccy meter.

To get an idea of your background energy consumption you can read the meter just before you go to bed and then again as soon as you get up but before turning on anything. Divide the difference between the two readings by the number of hours between the readings and you'll get a rough idea of what you use when most stuff is idle - do it for a few nights .

Slinky

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?