Saving electricity tips

Benny2020

Your male tortoise laid eggs?
It's either female or your eggs are tortoise poo.

RogerBareford

FreeBear said:

Reed_Richards said:

Desperadoo said:

Last few weeks I have reduced using tumble dryer and dishwasher  but not really making a big difference 

It's generally held to be more energy-efficient to use a dishwasher than to wash dishes by hand.  It might not be cheaper though; that could depend on how you heat your hot water.  

Is it though ?

I'll typically boil ~2l of water in a kettle (~0.2KWh) and add another ~1l of cold to do all my dishes from a days use. A dish washer will use what, 6l of water and 1.2-1.5KWh ?

3L of water won't really clean many dishes, pots and pans thoroughly as it will get dirty quite quickly.

My dishwasher uses hot water from the tank so it's gas heated which is cheaper than electrically heated.

I think you can wash dishes cheaper by hand but a dishwasher does a far better job and also take far less manual time.

Alnat1

Noooo Benny, we have 2 torties, as I'm sure you realise lol.

Jorge is only 8, a teenager in the tortoise world. Plenty of hormones but not quite sure what to do with them. His much larger female friend Izzy lets him make his attempts on her front or sides but flips him on his back if he goes near her rear end.

Think I should be able to tell if the eggs are viable in a few more days. Don't want to chuck em out too early, could be a money making scheme yet, tortoise breeder.

Benny2020

"Jorge is only 8, a teenager in the tortoise world. Plenty of hormones but not quite sure what to do with them. His much larger female friend Izzy lets him make his attempts on her front or sides but flips him on his back if he goes near her rear end."

My wife has the same policy.

Petriix

I think it's pointless talking about savings (either in £ or kWh) in comparison to previous months and years. There are too many variables. What would be of value is talking about the total wattage reduction.

Anyone with a functioning IHD attached to their smart meter should be able to simply read the base load with everything switched on then off and note the difference. It's probably worth turning off any fridges and freezers before to avoid the complications of compressor pumps kicking in and out.

On the current price cap, every 10W you can shave off your base load will save you ~ £2 per month.

I wouldn't personally advocate indiscriminately turning everything off at the wall. I suggest figuring out exactly how much energy each item uses and then strategically targeting the biggest wins.

Mstty

@Petriix I don't share that view as at this time of year heating is off and hot water is a measurable constant or even like us today off all together. So that's a perfect time to seek out electric guzzlers and have a try at energy saving measures with nothing else on except your background reading for essentials like broadband and fridge freezers.

Swipe

Get rid of the electric car

Petriix

Mstty said:

@Petriix I don't share that view as at this time of year heating is off and hot water is a measurable constant or even like us today off all together. So that's a perfect time to seek out electric guzzlers and have a try at energy saving measures with nothing else on except your background reading for essentials like broadband and fridge freezers.

What I mean is that comparing month to month is pointless because you might simply have done fewer loads of washing or spent 20 hours more watching TV etc.

I absolutely do think you should identify what is using the most power and looking at how to reduce that. I just don't think there's much point in switching off the power adapter which your bedside lamp and phone charger are plugged into.

I found that the biggest wins for me were switching off the old amp powering my kitchen ceiling speakers, the wireless printer, and the second base for our cordless landline phone. That knocked about 50W off our background usage.

Alnat1

Our best saving is totally turning off TV and set top box at plug socket when not in use and doing away with TV sound system. 

We have the TV on a lot less, hubby was a "background noise" type watcher but now it takes a couple of mins for the freeview box to "wake up" he doesn't bother with it. I used to put the news on in the morning, now I check it on my phone. Much nicer now to open the patio doors and listen to the birds twittering.

Benny2020

Stop letting the birds use twitter and you could save more.