Energy saving tips

[Deleted User]

wrf12345 said:

Done a little bit of experimenting. Turning off the ancient fridge (separate freezer) saved 0.4kw a day, in quite warm weather, about 20 percent full. Watching the TV on my 17 inch chromebook rather than 40 inch TV for 4-5 hours saved 0.3kw (more if connected to Hi-Fi system but already stopped that) but used 5GB data, so would have to increase my 60gb a month for a tenner. I do have a 24 inch TV but it would only save 10W/hour. I only do one cooked meal a day (grilled for 15 minutes, not sure what that costs as the oven is hardwired and can't measure on the power meter). Turning off the fridge is a minor inconvenience but losing the brilliant pic on my TV would lower my quality of life but only by a small amount so possibly watch less TV is the answer, Not worried until March when my fixed deal ends but if elect is 60-70p a unit by then,,, I am already a low user 1.2-2kw a day. If there is any more free money from the govn it will be going on solar panels rather than into the energy companies pockets, just a small system, off grid and running its own circuit - eBay and aliexpress your friend for DIY'ers.

Be careful, and get expert advice if you are not sure what you are doing with electrics (I'd recommend getting advice anyway).

I've investigated several house fires recently when someone who was DIY-ing a solar system had got it wrong in a seriously bad way.

wrf12345

unless the govn throws silly money into my bank I don't think experts will be lining up to come round and offer expert advice for free

I can imagine that if someone tried to tie it into the mains fusebox it would be a dangerous situation but I am talking a separate system with only the sockets in the actual house.

mosaicsquares

Have an older freezer? We've had our old upright one for years and was given a newer second hand one quite a while ago but it's been sitting in the garage. This month I wondered if it would be more efficient, and using my smart meter I found that I'm using a clear 2Kw per day less, every day. That's going to be £283.60 per year less on our current electric bill with a price of 38.851p per KW with Scottish Power. (Sept 22nd 2022). Now I wish I'd swapped it earlier! How much cheaper would it be without it at all? I wouldn't be averse to just picking up what I need from the shops freezer instead or just using fresh good instead if a freezer costs probably £200+ a year to run it, is it worth it?!

Mstty

mosaicsquares said:

Have an older freezer? We've had our old upright one for years and was given a newer second hand one quite a while ago but it's been sitting in the garage. This month I wondered if it would be more efficient, and using my smart meter I found that I'm using a clear 2Kw per day less, every day. That's going to be £283.60 per year less on our current electric bill with a price of 38.851p per KW with Scottish Power. (Sept 22nd 2022). Now I wish I'd swapped it earlier! How much cheaper would it be without it at all? I wouldn't be averse to just picking up what I need from the shops freezer instead or just using fresh good instead if a freezer costs probably £200+ a year to run it, is it worth it?!

If you have to drive to the shops then no as the fuel costs would probably outweigh the cost of running a fridge.

This is the question sometimes only you can answer is the convenience of a fridge worth the hassle of not having a fridge? 

masonic

mosaicsquares said:

Have an older freezer? We've had our old upright one for years and was given a newer second hand one quite a while ago but it's been sitting in the garage. This month I wondered if it would be more efficient, and using my smart meter I found that I'm using a clear 2Kw per day less, every day. That's going to be £283.60 per year less on our current electric bill with a price of 28.851p per KW with Scottish Power. (Sept 22nd 2022). Now I wish I'd swapped it earlier! How much cheaper would it be without it at all? I wouldn't be averse to just picking up what I need from the shops freezer instead or just using fresh good instead if a freezer costs probably £200+ a year to run it, is it worth it?!

Mine averages 19 W (0.46 kWh/day) and would cost me about £66 per year at 40p/kWh. Fortunately I'm on a cheap fix and paying nowhere near that price just yet. A plug-in energy meter is very useful in establishing the consumption of appliances like this. The running cost would need to be balanced against the savings from taking advantage of special offers, batch cooking and freezing, etc.

inkydolphin

masonic said:

wild666 said:

Boxman said:

wild666 said:

I already turn everything off at the wall socket except the fridge, freezer and router and it's saved me 35% on the electric bill.

As previously asked elsewhere what specific devices were using so much 'vampire' energy that you could save the 35% by switching them off when not in use?

The TV, DVD player, surround sound equipment, 2 desktop Pc's. PS4, Xbox, stereo, printer, cooker, washer, dryer, air fryer, microwave, shower switch, extractor fans and charging leads. My usage dropped 35% in one month from 196 kWh to around 128 kWh. I occasionally use the Xbox or PS4 which might increase the kWh usage to 135 or more kWh

Quite surprising that these devices are consuming almost 100 W between them when connected to the mains and powered off. I went around and checked mine and the worst one I could find was my washing machine, which consumed 0.3 W of phantom power. Turning that off at the mains saves me 0.2 kWh per month. Everything else was <0.1 W.

You have some mega-low standby wattages there - nice!

Mstty

So the energy saving is going well here. Last October 662 kWh usage (we are electricity only)

To date 17th October 180kwh usage