The new normal: £2 to tumble-dry and £45 a year for a smart doorbell

wild666

mr_stripey said:

QrizB said:

mr_stripey said:

how does a ring doorbell "cost" that in electricity? Am I missing something?

It looks like they've counted it as 10 watts for 24h a day, every day.

I have no idea if 10W is an accurate number.

Mine is battery operated. Have to remove it to charge approx every 3 months.

Maybe there is a mains wired version?

I live in a flat and my Ring doorbell lasts over 5 months but I don't use motion detection as the people in the other flats might complain.

MWT

TheGardener said:

The price quoted for a shower seems very low? 

Gas for water heating I'd say...

EssexHebridean

pochase said:

A light bulb currently 1.8p an hour?  That is more than 60w. Have they heard about LED? Absolute scaremongering.

 
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Yes - this is the sort of misleading nonsense that needs cracking down on IMO. Although I’d like to know where you get one of their super-cheap to run hoovers from - mine costs a heck of a lot more than that when in use! 😂

TimSynths said:

TheGardener said:

The price quoted for a shower seems very low? 

How we made our calculations

To get running costs for appliances we multiplied their power consumption, in watts, by the number of hours used, and divided by 1,000 (the watts in a kilowatt-hour) to reach a kWh figure. We then multiplied that by the unit price of electricity or gas now and from October.

The single person’s consumption was based on their using the washing machine and tumble dryer once a week, showering daily for five minutes, cooking in the oven every day for an hour and using the dishwasher once a week. They would also vacuum an hour a week and watch 10 hours of TV.

The childless couple’s consumption assumes they use a washing machine and tumble dryer twice a week, shower separately daily for five minutes each, use the oven for an hour seven days a week, the microwave three times a week, run the dishwasher twice and vacuum for an hour. They watch 20 hours of TV.

For the family we assumed that they use the washing machine seven times and the tumble dryer five times, all shower once a day for five minutes each, cook in the oven seven times for an hour at a time, use the microwave eight times, the dishwasher five times, hoover for two hours, watch 30 hours of TV and use an Xbox for 10 hours.

The retirees’ consumption was based on using the washing machine and tumble dryer twice a week, the oven four times, microwave eight times, an electric radiator for seven hours, both showering once a day for 10 minutes and watching 40 hours of TV.

In other words they’ve manipulated the figures to get the end result they desire for their scaremongering. Fairly predictable stuff. 

SAC2334

Alnat1 said:

I thought that as well @pochase. There's too many people think sitting in the dark will save them a fortune, rubbish like that only makes it worse.

The "5 minutes in the shower" is way too vague, what kind of shower? electric? heated from boiler/tank?

Fridge freezers vary a lot, the American one I scrapped after Tapo testing would have cost me £450/year.

If only it was 15 p for a five minute 8kw electric shower on the Oct capped rate  I would nt bother doing my on/off technique , eg quick blast for 40 secs , switch off , when ready then switch back on for a rinse off for 40 sec = 1.20 secs = 8.8 p 

I make it approx. £4 an hour to run an 8 kw shower = 6.66 p a minute x 5 is 33 p for a 5 minute shower at the Oct capped rate .

I ve probably got that wrong and someone will add up correctly for me , they usually do .
Maybe 15 p for a 5 min shower is more or less right for a gas powered shower 

To avoid a long cold  or a scalding hot brief minute or so when switching back on again  I first switch off at the shower  then when all done ready for the final rinse I find a quick off and on directly at the pull switch does the trick and the shower restarts with just maybe 10 secs to warm up to correct temperature

Magnitio

QrizB said:

mr_stripey said:

how does a ring doorbell "cost" that in electricity? Am I missing something?

It looks like they've counted it as 10 watts for 24h a day, every day.

I have no idea if 10W is an accurate number.

The wired Ring doorbell does use a 10W charger. This is used to top-up an internal battery within the device and therefore does not operate 24/7 at 10W, so the figures quoted are incorrect. The device is designed to use very little energy, hence the ability for the battery version to run for months without charging. Some people will also have a ringer plugged in; these also use very little energy.

Headlines like this will result in people ditching equipment for the wrong reasons.

ChaunceyGardiner

Magnitio said:

QrizB said:

mr_stripey said:

how does a ring doorbell "cost" that in electricity? Am I missing something?

It looks like they've counted it as 10 watts for 24h a day, every day.

I have no idea if 10W is an accurate number.

The wired Ring doorbell does use a 10W charger. This is used to top-up an internal battery within the device and therefore does not operate 24/7 at 10W, so the figures quoted are incorrect. The device is designed to use very little energy, hence the ability for the battery version to run for months without charging. Some people will also have a ringer plugged in; these also use very little energy.

Headlines like this will result in people ditching equipment for the wrong reasons.

Some wired Ring doorbells have no battery and scan for activity more frequently than the battery-operated models. 10W, including losses in the transformer, doesn't sound unreasonable.

Norman_Castle

EssexHebridean said:

Yes - this is the sort of misleading nonsense that needs cracking down on IMO. Although I’d like to know where you get one of their super-cheap to run hoovers from - mine costs a heck of a lot more than that when in use! 😂

Modern vacuums use around 600w. Remember the scaremongering when excessive consumption vacuums were banned? I wonder how many people struggling with energy costs habitually vacuum every day?

Sea_Shell

Norman_Castle said:

EssexHebridean said:

Yes - this is the sort of misleading nonsense that needs cracking down on IMO. Although I’d like to know where you get one of their super-cheap to run hoovers from - mine costs a heck of a lot more than that when in use! 😂

Modern vacuums use around 600w. Remember the scaremongering when excessive consumption vacuums were banned? I wonder how many people struggling with energy costs habitually vacuum every day?

Only yesterday whilst using our corded Shark (a replacement for an old Dyson), I commented to DH that "I bet people will be glad that high powers hoovers were banned".

I wonder how many of those "lightweight rechargeable" vacuums are whipped out at the first sight of a crumb?    We only vacuum once a week, whether it needs it or not!!! 

pochase

wild666 said:

QrizB said:

mr_stripey said:

how does a ring doorbell "cost" that in electricity? Am I missing something?

It looks like they've counted it as 10 watts for 24h a day, every day.

I have no idea if 10W is an accurate number.

I use to have smart bulbs they used 4 Watts in standby mode and 11 Watts turned on. I hardly have any lights on now as I'm in bed before it gets dark and only have the light on for 5 minutes in the morning to make a flask of tea and a sandwich.

You just gave me a scare looking at about 15 Hue bulbs in my home. But they seem to use very little in standby.

https://www.howtogeek.com/341872/do-smart-bulbs-use-up-electricity-even-when-they’re-off/#:~:text=Long%20story%20short%2C%20it%20would,mode%20(or%209.17%20months).

There are other models that use a bit of energy.

victor2

You hear many people saying "I unplug the TV at night to save money". Yet they leave it on all day, using say 180W, for 10 hours but it's only using 0.5W in standby. So 14 hours in standby uses as much power as about 2 minutes "viewing".