Saving electricity tips

Mstty

mjm3346 said:

"EU regulations specify that non-networked electrical devices sold after 2013 cannot have a standby power greater than 0.5W, and networked-connected devices (for example, televisions or games consoles connected to the internet) must not consume more than 3-12W, depending on the product."

I wonder if that covers the load of that "rubbish" sold on eBay and Amazon. Direct from China.

Or the counterfeit

EmmaBadgeParry

Alnat1 said:

Make sure you turn off everything at the plug socket when not in use, especially overnight. Only things that really need to stay on are fridge/freezer and internet router.

I do this and for the last 2 months my energy has been less than £90

Robin9

EmmaBadgeParry said:

Alnat1 said:

Make sure you turn off everything at the plug socket when not in use, especially overnight. Only things that really need to stay on are fridge/freezer and internet router.

I do this and for the last 2 months my energy has been less than £90

@EmmaBadgeParry

By itself that doesn't mean very much  - how much has your consumption dropped (in KWh) and much of that is due to reduced use at this time of year - less lighting, cooking, out more ?

comeandgo

On holiday for two weeks, just before I left the house I checked that the usual culprits were off at the wall, kettle, microwave, table lamps, computers, TV.  On Sunday husband mentioned that he was recording the F1 and some football.  I have not told him yet that I shut the tv off totally.  

Coffeekup

MattMattMattUK said:

You really do not need to do that, modern TVs use less than half a watt in standby, routers might use a few watts, single digit to teens at most, phone chargers plugged but not in use consume no power. Turning things off at the socket is pointless.

I started turning things off at the wall in September last year to see how much I could save in kw'h. Not having much in the house anyway I didn't expect much of a reduction. Turning the CD player, amplifier, tv, digital tv box, and washing machine off at the wall saved me 40kw'h over a month over the previous 3 year's reading's. Although I agree phone chargers use next to nothing. 

For you it's maybe pointless for me it's a saving of £6 a month till my current deal finishes then it'll be £11+ saving on the current price cap.

It's less pollutants I've released into the atmosphere bringing down my "carbon footprint", with 25 million + homes in the UK if they all cut back an average of 40kwh a month the air will be clearer for us all.

If there is anything we all should know from this website is how quickly numbers compound, so to say things use miniscule kWh per hour soon add up over a number of devices/appliances over time.

Coffeekup

Zandoni said:

In our house we always wash our hands under the cold tap, I really can’t see the point in waiting for the hot water to get through, or worse still it only getting through when you’ve finished.

I do the same for 2 or so years now, it's also reduced my eczema on my hands and wrists to almost nothing.

Coffeekup

wild666 said:

Mstty said:

I have calculated turning things off standby is a good idea but it doesn't save everyone bundles of money .e.g. 20 items on 1w standby for 12 hours a day as we don't have a PVR or sky box to muddy the power saving waters.

So the saving for 12 hours per day for the year is £25.61 a year @ our capped rate of 29.24p per kWh

It's not massive but we will still do it as it represents 1.5% of our yearly usage.

@wild666 your savings are mainly your heating reduction and to be honest most people would not want to reduce to the levels you have set yourself as they have a balance of enjoying life over not enjoying home life. 

Then why did my monthly electric bill drop by 80 kWh, £16 per month, when I started switching everything off at the wall socket? I admit the appliances I have are not the most energy efficient but when I bought them they were no higher than C rated, only the TV bought in December 2019, G rated, but gets very little use, mainly due to only being used as a monitor for the games consoles. 

I'm with you, my savings when I started turning things off at the wall was 40 kWh a month. Everyone's house hold items are different, bought in different years, different sizes and maybe have some defect from manufacturing which may cause them to use more energy.
You and I can have the same fridge freezer model for example from the same year, and yours uses more than mine because it may be in a warmer room, or it catches the sun for 5 hours a day which will kick that compressor in.

Also I tend not believe what manufacturers state, I also take things with a pinch of salt on what I read after a quick web search.

Alnat1

My overnight use has now gone back up a bit.

Tortoise laid 3 eggs and family insist we have to try and hatch them. I have serious doubts that our young male is up to the job so don't think they will be fertile. Now have a seed propagator running 24/7 (22w on label but seems to be using more) and online info says could take 50-100 days, arghhhhhh lol 

Alnat1

Money saving tip, don't get pets!!

wild666

Coffeekup said:

MattMattMattUK said:

You really do not need to do that, modern TVs use less than half a watt in standby, routers might use a few watts, single digit to teens at most, phone chargers plugged but not in use consume no power. Turning things off at the socket is pointless.

I started turning things off at the wall in September last year to see how much I could save in kw'h. Not having much in the house anyway I didn't expect much of a reduction. Turning the CD player, amplifier, tv, digital tv box, and washing machine off at the wall saved me 40kw'h over a month over the previous 3 year's reading's. Although I agree phone chargers use next to nothing. 

For you it's maybe pointless for me it's a saving of £6 a month till my current deal finishes then it'll be £11+ saving on the current price cap.

It's less pollutants I've released into the atmosphere bringing down my "carbon footprint", with 25 million + homes in the UK if they all cut back an average of 40kwh a month the air will be clearer for us all.

If there is anything we all should know from this website is how quickly numbers compound, so to say things use miniscule kWh per hour soon add up over a number of devices/appliances over time.

I started turning everything off at the wall socket when Avro went under. I expected to save around £3 per month, maybe a bit more, but I was surprised when I worked out the usage and SC to find it was £16 that I had saved that month, it's now £21.67 per month at the current prices. My kWh used dropped from 196 kWh down to just 116 kWh but can rise to 126 kWh if I use the games console a few times a month. 

People do say that saving just a couple of pounds by turning an appliance off at the socket is nothing and wouldn't bother but when you take 15 or 16 items then it soon adds up to ten pounds plus per month. I have heard people say it's only 35 p to 40 p per day so not worth it but what if they were that amount short of paying for something in a shop they would be annoyed that they didn't have the correct amount of money to buy the item. 
I did similar with the boiler turning the temperatures on the boiler down and the thermostat down to 18 degrees whilst the boiler temperatures were reduced to 50 degrees for water and 55 for heating.