Oct price cap increase likely to push energy bill to over £10k... for a family of 4...

MariaAH

Mstty said:

Yep as I said that's explained and not changeable👍

Don't suppose you've managed to monitor the fridge freezer yet that one will be interesting due to age a couple posted on here recently have been eating 2-3kWh a day.

That will be next on my list once I have monitored son's set up for a full 7 days. I'll be very interested to see too...I don't want to fork out to replace appliances/devices as that defeats the object...but with fridge/freezer on 24/7 would need to balance that with buying a newer model...

Alnat1

I opted for a new FF after only 48 hours monitoring, it was that bad. Yours probably won't be as terrible as mine was but I'd recommend sticking the Tapo on for at least a week to get a good average. If you do a big shop and put in lots of items that need chilling/freezing then use will be up that day. If it's a weekly thing you can factor it in to get annual use. 

My new, non American FF uses 0.4kWh on a normal day, 0.6kWh on shopping day. I even noticed use went up when I had the freezer door open longer than usual one day, hunting through all the drawers to find where the ginger was (I freeze a fresh root, grate what I need and pop the rest back in the freezer, no peeling needed and no waste)

chris_n

MariaAH said:

Mstty said:

The laptop plugged into monitors at home would likey be cheaper than the iMac.

Plus, I may be wrong, but using a personal iMac for business then sending those files into and out of work is prohibited by most companies these days.

A better and cheaper to run setup would be work laptop and 2 screen setup to mimic work.

If the iMac is work provided or on their you work within a protected company cloud ignore everything above you have explained why it is better for you and not an area you would look to save on👍

Probably only a small saving anyway I think the average 27" iMac is 100w in average use.

However don't underestimate the smallest of saving 100w saved equals 876kW and that could soon be over £500 a year.

I log into a protected Google workspace for work so all on company cloud. None of my 'work' is held locally on my iMac.
Whilst it would be cheaper in terms kWh for 2 screen setup...not if I have to buy 2 new monitors, a docking station, mouse, keyboard, webcam etc to replace the iMac. Without going into details about what I do for work, having the 27 in screen makes doing my job easier and more efficient, and is less likely to trigger my migraines. The migraine issue was one of the reasons I bought the iMac 4 years ago.

Surely if your employer is providing you with equipment to work from home then it needs to be suitable for you to do the work. If you were in the office they would have to do a risk assessment,  if because of migraines you would need to supply it. I would have thought they would be just as responsible for your well being working remotely. 

inkydolphin

Alnat1 said:

I opted for a new FF after only 48 hours monitoring, it was that bad. Yours probably won't be as terrible as mine was but I'd recommend sticking the Tapo on for at least a week to get a good average. If you do a big shop and put in lots of items that need chilling/freezing then use will be up that day. If it's a weekly thing you can factor it in to get annual use. 

My new, non American FF uses 0.4kWh on a normal day, 0.6kWh on shopping day. I even noticed use went up when I had the freezer door open longer than usual one day, hunting through all the drawers to find where the ginger was (I freeze a fresh root, grate what I need and pop the rest back in the freezer, no peeling needed and no waste)

What kWh was the one you replaced running at?

Alnat1

It was 14 years old and original guide said something like 432(452?)kWh/yr. 48 hours Tapo monitoring showed this was going to be nearly 900kWh/yr.

New FF claimed 225kWh/yr, Tapo for last 30 days (many very hot!) says 12.5kWh used. 12.5/30 x 365 = 152kWh.

xeny

I suspect the screen is the big consumer there - it is reasonably large and extra high resolution, so lovely to look at but computationally quite expensive and I think higher res screens use more energy flipping the extra transistors that provide the pixels. It would also not be at all cheap to buy comparable stand alone displays.

Best you can probably do is set a decent screen timeout, keep the brightness as low as reasonable and avoid leaving web pages with lots of animated adverts open (seriously) as they keep the CPU working rather than at idle. Edge is pretty good for that as a browser, as you can specify a sleep time for idle tabs.

MariaAH

Thanks for comments and suggestions regarding my iMac, I genuinely appreciate them, however, that is one device/set up that is non-negotiable. I suffered from debilitating migraines for over a decade, up to 9 a month. Made it difficult for me to even work at all. Cut a long story short, I have my migraines under control, and my iMac set up works well for me in that regard. It’s about my quality of life, health and well being.  Appreciate comments and suggestions. Will give updates re TP link monitoring 😊

GingerTim

MariaAH said:

Thanks for comments and suggestions regarding my iMac, I genuinely appreciate them, however, that is one device/set up that is non-negotiable. I suffered from debilitating migraines for over a decade, up to 9 a month. Made it difficult for me to even work at all. Cut a long story short, I have my migraines under control, and my iMac set up works well for me in that regard. It’s about my quality of life, health and well being.  Appreciate comments and suggestions. Will give updates re TP link monitoring 😊

Completely agree with this - getting the right work set-up us absolutely vital. I had crippling neck and migraine issues, too, until work sorted out a proper home VSU assessment and provided the necessary equipment. Does it cost a bit more to run dual monitors and a decently-spwcced machine? Probably, but it's worth every penny to not be constantly in pain.

KxMx

You can't put a price on health,  and while you are trying to reduce energy use that doesn't mean absolutely everything needs to be about pounds and pence. 

Flight3287462

What a great thread, though has taken me three sittings to work my way through it.  I will follow updates with interest.

Just made the mistake of going in to my 18 year old daughter's bedroom (just back from Italy) to check what has been left on and it looks like a war zone.  Off to Uni this Sep[tember so hoping for a decent drop in power use.