Electricity usage while away

pmets

jrawle said:

MWT said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

Your use is under half that of a typical household in the UK, when others are using more it doesn't automatically mean it is being wasted...

I am sure we are all looking at reducing actual waste though, but it isn't going to be possible/practical for everyone to hit your very low level.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that people must automatically be wasting electricity when their daily average usage over the whole year is more than 4 kWh. I was just surprised that people can use that amount while they are away on holiday over the summer! That means they are likely using the same in background "vampire" usage when they are at home, and much of that is a waste.

How do you get your usage that low, do you turn off everything that is in standby, such as microwave and cooker? 

Mstty

To give some context our daily average is less than 7kwh a day in the summer(6.75kWh). We work from home, heat the hot water with the electric air source heat pump we don't have any other source of power. 5-6 washing machine loads, tumble dryer on 5 times a week. 

One built in fridge freezer and separate freezer.

We use microwave, air fryer,separate electric grill and BBQ in summer.

My partner likes to hoover most days (rechargeable hand held dysons)

Echo show and dots.play music most days for a few hours, TV in the evening and various phones and tablets to charge.

Router and nest WiFi system 

At the moment we also have a DC fan going all day and night

You really must seek out your vampire devices.

FreeBear

pmets said:

jrawle said:

MWT said:

jrawle said:

My electricity usage averaged over the whole year is not even 4 kWh per day! The mind boggles at how much people are wasting if this is the usage when they are away.

Your use is under half that of a typical household in the UK, when others are using more it doesn't automatically mean it is being wasted...

I am sure we are all looking at reducing actual waste though, but it isn't going to be possible/practical for everyone to hit your very low level.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that people must automatically be wasting electricity when their daily average usage over the whole year is more than 4 kWh. I was just surprised that people can use that amount while they are away on holiday over the summer! That means they are likely using the same in background "vampire" usage when they are at home, and much of that is a waste.

How do you get your usage that low, do you turn off everything that is in standby, such as microwave and cooker? 

I'm averaging 4-5KWh per day. Cooker/hob, microwave, fridges & freezer all on 24/7 as is the router and home automation system. Everything else gets switched off at the wall or unplugged when not in use.

BeerSavesMoney

I saw a Reddit post earlier which I found interesting related to background energy usage:

I just wanted to share the energy cost of devices and appliances that are on standby or permanently switched on in my home. 

All measurements are my own and not the manufacturers' official figures. The meter I used is similar to this. Big Clive reviewed one a couple of years ago and found them to be very accurate. 

Present cost is based on the Octopus capped rate of 29.58p/kWh. Projected cost assumes a 70% increase in October although it looks like it will be higher than this. 

	Consumption (W)	Annual cost	Projected cost (+70%)
Bedside alarm clock/radio	0.8	£2.07	£3.52
TV – LG C1 (2021 model)	0.2	£0.52	£0.88
Sky Q STB – standby	11	£28.50	£48.46
Sky Q STB – recording while in standby	13.8	£35.76	£60.79
Sky Q Mini box	9.1	£23.58	£40.09
TV – LG 39” (2014 model)	<0.1	£0.00	£0.00
LG home theatre c.2010	0.1	£0.26	£0.44
Amazon Echo (2nd Gen)	1.9	£4.92	£8.37
Microwave oven, Matsui brand (~25 yrs old)	6.1	£15.81	£26.87
Zanussi dishwasher, c.30 years old	0.1	£0.26	£0.44
Dishwasher left on but not running	0.9	£2.33	£3.96
Brother colour laser printer	1.6	£4.15	£7.05
Virgin Hub 3 router	12	£31.09	£52.86
Motorola phone charger (2020)	<0.1	£0.00	£0.00
Apple phone charger	<0.1	£0.00	£0.00
Dell laptop charger (recent model)	<0.1	£0.00	£0.00
Netgear 5 port gigabit switch	1.4	£3.63	£6.17
Sky Q broadband router	7.2	£18.66	£31.72
Ambi Pur plug-in air freshener	2.1	£5.44	£9.25
Desktop PC	1.2	£3.11	£5.29
Qnix 27” monitor	0.5	£1.30	£2.20
Whirlpool washing machine (c.2005) – off	0.1	£0.26	£0.44
Washing machine – on but not running	1.1	£2.85	£4.85
Amazon FireTV stick (2nd gen)	1.5	£4.15	£7.05
Apple laptop charger (knockoff)	0.3	£0.7

https://reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/wkxng0/energy_cost_of_devices_on_standby_in_my_home/