Background Electricity Usage 8760 hours a year

Ultrasonic

Sea_Shell said:

Just found the manuals (2014).   Freezer 222kwh per year, fridge 134kwh per year.  Both A+ rated.

Your numbers certainly look entirely plausible then. 

(When someone says fridge-freezer I first think of a single unit roughly person height and single doors, so by 'big' I was meaning anything more than this like an 'American style' wider unit or the two units you have. Not a criticism but it explains larger energy consumption than what I was first thinking of.)

Xbigman

The ratings on electrical appliances have been reset. Something that was A+ in 2014 is more likely an E or F rating now. 

Darren

Xbigman

I read this discussion with only mild interest but I came across an old (I bought it years before my father died in 2002) wind up alarm clock and on a whim ditched my radio/alarm and switched back to mechanical. I'll just wind it each night when I go to bed. The ticking is very soft and doesn't stop me getting to sleep, but it doesn't have a light so I can't see it when dark. I can live with that. I've no idea what I might save, hopefully a few quid a year at least.

Whilst thinking about this I've started turning off my induction hob when not in use. I've had a look online and apparently anything that works by induction can give a higher standby usage when tested than is actually being used. Then again, induction systems aren't harmed by being turned on and off so off its going. 

As for routers. I've no idea how many devices are linked to modern routers in the average home but if you're only using one computer with them you should plug the cable straight into the computer and ignore the router. Virgin Media told me this was 'old fashioned'. I took it as a compliment.

Darren

Benny2020

I have re chargeable alarm clocks, torches etc and charge them on solar power during the day.

QrizB

Sea_Shell said:

I agree there is value in being conscious of usage, especially at ~33p per unit. 

In my opinion, there's nothing unusual about your phantom load readings. 45 watts, 71 watts - none of these are unusual. Even 150 watts wouldn't mean something was wrong.

I agree that it's worth understanding your own household, so you can tell if something changes unexpectedly, but don't get too hung up chasing every last watt.

Sea_Shell

QrizB said:

Sea_Shell said:

I agree there is value in being conscious of usage, especially at ~33p per unit. 

In my opinion, there's nothing unusual about your phantom load readings. 45 watts, 71 watts - none of these are unusual. Even 150 watts wouldn't mean something was wrong.

I agree that it's worth understanding your own household, so you can tell if something changes unexpectedly, but don't get too hung up chasing every last watt.

I agree.   Just interested in the numbers! 

It also helps when assisting family to understand this stuff.

Ultrasonic

QrizB said:

Sea_Shell said:

I agree there is value in being conscious of usage, especially at ~33p per unit. 

In my opinion, there's nothing unusual about your phantom load readings. 45 watts, 71 watts - none of these are unusual. Even 150 watts wouldn't mean something was wrong.

I agree that it's worth understanding your own household, so you can tell if something changes unexpectedly, but don't get too hung up chasing every last watt.

I'd struggle not to question a household having a background power usage of 150 W personally. That would be 1314 kWh per year.

Rather than what may be 'unusual' I think there are at minimum environmental reasons to at least consider what may be 'easy wins' in terms of reducing energy use as is being discussed in this thread. 

TheMightyShowerHead

Reading this got me thinking. I've got an old pentane upright freezer (A Kyoto KU89 "duluxe") Do you remember when Iceland made kitchen appliances? I vaguely do and I'm in my 30s. It's older than the alphabet raiting system.
I defrosted it today because it desperately needed doing. And I wasn't being gentle while still trying not to break it. Which got me thinking about if it would be cheaper energy wise to replace it. I'm loathe to get rid because it still works. But obviously if it's going to recover the cost in the medium term what with energy prices only going up it might be time to bite the bullet. 

It's rated to run at 140w. It's 250L capacity. What do the newer freezers run at these days? Appreciate it would be rough calculations only but do you reckon I would actually save if I were to spend a few quid on a new freezer?

Gerry1

TheMightyShowerHead said:

It's rated to run at 140w. It's 250L capacity. What do the newer freezers run at these days? Appreciate it would be rough calculations only but do you reckon I would actually save if I were to spend a few quid on a new freezer?

FWIW I bought a Beko FFG1545W probably about two and a half years ago IIRC, certainly pre-pandemic.  It was then rated A+ at 249kWh per year, 130W, defrost power 182W.  (Presumably that's average /peak?)

Now it's rated at F under the new system and 266kWh per year.

I'm very pleased with it and can highly recommend it, the old one had lasted over 30 years but was a right pain to defrost and its temperature regulation had become a bit wonky.

It would have been worth getting the new one just for the convenience of being frost free.  It's also one of the very few models that can be used in a garage or outbuilding because it's rated down to -15C whereas most only go down to +10C.

victor2

We replaced a very old American fridge/freezer that used about 3kWh per day last year with a new American style one, that claims to use 1.2kWh per day. Quite a nice saving in energy usage, but it will never pay for itself in its lifetime, even at today's electricity prices.

If looking a\t the consumption of such appliances, you do need to measure it over at least 24 hours, as many "frost free" ones have a heating element in them that cycles on just once a day or so. At least that's what our old one did.