Background Electricity Usage 8760 hours a year

cx6

all transformers (a shaver socket uses a transformer) use current even when nothing is plugged in. I will check.mine tonight.

Effician

Slinky said:

Effician said:

Slinky said:

Ultrasonic said:

Norman_Castle said:

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. 

True but I'm not sure why I'd want to measure that? Plus the manuals for white goods will give some idea if needed.

The context of this thread though was the background electricity use with no obvious activity, and this can be measured with a smart meter IHD so this was the context I was commenting from.

I'd like to know the costs of washing machine use etc as I've currently got E7 old style meter and I'm trying to work out whether the cheaper rate of running it at night is worth it to me.

Could be anything between 300wh & over 2kwh depending on the programme & efficiency of the washing machine

That's why I'd like to be able to measure it. I don't think manuals are really geared up for giving precise data - we didn't all used to be concerned about small differences when those things were written. It's obvious from this thread that watts = £££ these days

We'll do 2 x  20c quick washes this week at about 300wh each so 600wh total, if we switch the w/m of at the wall socket between washes to save the 4wh standby  which we used to leave on( thanks to cx6)  we have 166 hrs x 4w = 664wh ,in effect doing 2 washes for free this week,  camparisons like this help to put into perspective how much we've become accustomed to wasting.

.

victor2

I plugged my washing machine into a monitor having read the comments on here. It showed 0W when off, and is about 20 years old. Those monitors are not very accurate below one watt, but I'd be hesitant to expect any savings by switching it off at the socket.

Effician

victor2 said:

I plugged my washing machine into a monitor having read the comments on here. It showed 0W when off, and is about 20 years old. Those monitors are not very accurate below one watt, but I'd be hesitant to expect any savings by switching it off at the socket.

Our Lg is 3yrs old & 4w standby showing on the ihd, i presume it's to do with the soft touch power button on the front panel.

coffeehound

Slinky said:

That's why I'd like to be able to measure it. I don't think manuals are really geared up for giving precise data - we didn't all used to be concerned about small differences when those things were written. It's obvious from this thread that watts = £££ these days

@Slinky if you state your w/m make and model, someone could look it up

cx6

soft touch switches use power, hard clicky on / off switches don't.

My Beko uses 4W even when off it has a soft touch on /off switch

Ultrasonic

Slinky said:

Effician said:

Slinky said:

Ultrasonic said:

Norman_Castle said:

Ultrasonic said:

Slinky said:

Can anybody recommend a particular monitor?

Get a smart meter fitted then you won't have to pay for one. My IHD is all I've used. Ones you can buy will give you finer resolution (0.1 W vs 1 W) but this isn't desperately useful.

 A smart meter cannot tell you the cost of a washing cycle or running a fridge over many days. 

True but I'm not sure why I'd want to measure that? Plus the manuals for white goods will give some idea if needed.

The context of this thread though was the background electricity use with no obvious activity, and this can be measured with a smart meter IHD so this was the context I was commenting from.

I'd like to know the costs of washing machine use etc as I've currently got E7 old style meter and I'm trying to work out whether the cheaper rate of running it at night is worth it to me.

Could be anything between 300wh & over 2kwh depending on the programme & efficiency of the washing machine

That's why I'd like to be able to measure it. I don't think manuals are really geared up for giving precise data - we didn't all used to be concerned about small differences when those things were written. It's obvious from this thread that watts = £££ these days

I wonder how consistent your overnight energy use may be from one night to the next, particularly if say used just to hot water once heating is no longer needed? If it is consistent then you could compare energy use for a night where you did some washing to a night where you didn't to get a pretty good idea of he energy used, and save yourself £15 on a meter to measure it.

Also consider the two negatives of using a washing machine overnight: noise (for your household and close neighbours if you have them) and a slightly increased risk of a bad outcome from a fire.

Ultrasonic

cx6 said:

all transformers (a shaver socket uses a transformer) use current even when nothing is plugged in. I will check.mine tonight.

Unless there is a switch activated when a plug is put in, meaning there is no current through the transformer otherwise. If modern shaver sockets genuinely do use no power then I can see that it would be possible this way.

Ultrasonic

Thinking about it, the energy used by a washing machine will depend on the temperature of the water coming into it. So possibly a wash done at dusk may use less power than one run in the middle of the night?

QrizB

Ultrasonic said:

Thinking about it, the energy used by a washing machine will depend on the temperature of the water coming into it. So possibly a wash done at dusk may use less power than one run in the middle of the night?

Mains water pipes usually run underground. Supply temperature variations are seasonal rather than diurnal.