Saving electricity tips

[Deleted User]

I'm showing my age here!  As a small child in the mid 1950's we were so very excided to have our first ever small black and white TV - BBC and no other channels.

We would settle after our evening meal, put the main light out and we (all six of us including Mum and Dad)  would watch the TV with only the glow from the coal fire providing any other light.  Changed days!

Crimson

Alnat1

That little B&W TV probably used way more electricity that a 60" (with LED lamp on) does today.

Of course, electric was almost free back then 

markin

Dailymail enters the debate.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10953407/Armed-new-fangled-gadget-TOBY-WALNE-tests-energy-saving-claims.html

"Maybe my family is more addicted to new tech than most – but the findings are a surprise."

Old tech if them reading are to be believed! Also my meter records 2w with nothing in it so always over reads.

wild666

Switching off appliances that are left in standby mode does save energy. There is three appliances that you shouldn't turn off at all and they are the fridge, freezer and router. Everything else can be turned off at the wall socket whether it's the TV, cooker, microwave or any other number of appliances that are left in standby  mode. 
I save up to 80 kWh per month by turning things off. 
I don't buy meters to see how much power appliances are using, I just turn the appliances off like my grandparent did. I did have smart bulbs that use 4 Watts per hour when in standby mode, , 11 Watts in use, 4 of them was 16 Watts per hour, I don't use them any more I just turn the light on when needed.  In use 24/7 they would use 385.44 kWh per year but only 384 Watts per day in standby. 
No matter what people say about it only saving minimal amounts it all adds up over the day/week/year. 

Effician

wild666 said:

There is three appliances that you shouldn't turn off at all and they are the fridge, freezer and router.

I switch off the router every night for 10 hrs with no ill effects, however a few years ago when rein & shine were an issue ( pre g.inp & vectoring) it made sense to leave the router on permanently.

Coffeekup

Effician said:

wild666 said:

There is three appliances that you shouldn't turn off at all and they are the fridge, freezer and router.

I switch off the router every night for 10 hrs with no ill effects, however a few years ago when rein & shine were an issue ( pre g.inp & vectoring) it made sense to leave the router on permanently.

I turn it off too, years ago when it was on all the time I was constantly on the phone to my BB provider they said turn it off for a few mins and turn it in again. Eventually I learned to turn it off every now and then when I had an issue. These days no issues at all

Alnat1

Don't BB providers tell you that to get rid of you for 15 minutes?

Boxman

wild666 said:

 
I save up to 80 kWh per month by turning things off. 
  

That's clearly about 2.6kWh per day, more than a third of my normal usage.  Out of interest can you identify which particular devices you think were using that much?

Alnat1

TV set top box and a sound system (huge Bose box thing inherited from previous owner that he'd wired in to the walls) were our biggest savings. The Bose system has been removed as it was expensive in use as well as on standby.

Tjd85

Another idea to save money aside from all the above mentioned is a mini solar setup. 120watt solar panel connected up to a controller and a battery. From this you can connect battery banks via the controllers usb hub. These batteries are power bank lithium batteries that can then be used to charge all portable devices, used to power night lights and other such things as required. Reconnecting the power banks as required. The idea been that the panel is charging the main connected battery which then charges the powerbanks. The savings of this system aren’t ever going to be massive but the more it’s used the greater it will be.

This type of setup costs around £200-250 is portable and requires little skill to set up your self. Going further, a inverter could be connected and used to power routers etc…through the night. Reducing nightly usage is a goal of mine. Currently my base load is 30watts.