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

oldagetraveller1

Oh no, 21p to charge my electric toothbrush. Back to manual hand brushing then at that price! Or subject everyone to some halitosis.

FreeBear

mr_stripey said:

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

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4407618977300-Safety-and-compliance-information-for-Ring-Video-Doorbell-Wired - Claims 1.2W when in standby mode. So that would work out at around £5.50 per year assuming 52p per KWh.

A 5W LED bulb, 0.26p per hour.

Ultrasonic

I was surprised at the idea of a single tumble-drier cycle potentially using around 4 kWh but a quick Google suggests this isn't unrealistic. This is more than my average total daily electricity usage!

tryingmybest99

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?

I've got laminate floors, low standards and no storage space, so I just sweep and mop a couple of times a week, no hoover. Finally, my poor housekeeping skills are a bonus. 

tryingmybest99

victor2 said:

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".

There's been some great improvements in standby power efficiency, which is great! I think the best way for individuals to approach this, rather than taking The Times' word for it is look at the manuals for their big energy using equipment and work out either the kW draw for "on" mode and how long they use it to calculate the kWh consumption of that equipment per month and/ or look to see the average kWh usage in the manual (e.g. per washing machine cycle; I think most manuals have this). If you don't have the manual still, it is probably findable online! Then you can see where your biggest consumption is from (and compare it to your smart meter data to confirm this). I have in the past sometimes had the bad habit of having the TV on for a bit of noise/ company. I am switching to getting through my backlog of books as a hobby this winter instead of watching the TV and putting on Spotify on my phone or my new solar-powered/ wind-up radio as background noise, because as you say it is the "on" mode that is the big user. And banning myself from being lazy and using the tumble-dryer. 

xeny

On can be quite nuanced. I used a combination fan oven grill today, 2.5KW to preheat, 1.5 to cook, around .75 as a grill. 45W after cooking with the door open, 20W with the door closed was a bit of a surprise.

For the relatively low cost of a plug in power meter or a smart plug with metering, I think they are well worth getting in order to get appliance specific figures. You only use them for a week or two per household, so perhaps pass one around the office or your relatives once you have measured everything in the house.

jimexbox

FreeBear said:

mr_stripey said:

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

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4407618977300-Safety-and-compliance-information-for-Ring-Video-Doorbell-Wired - Claims 1.2W when in standby mode. So that would work out at around £5.50 per year assuming 52p per KWh.

A 5W LED bulb, 0.26p per hour.

Couple of decimal places missed on the 5w bulb. 

Led lights are extremely cheap to run. White goods, pc/xbox and oven are the main culprits.

So no need to sit in the dark or use candles. 

tryingmybest99

xeny said:

On can be quite nuanced. I used a combination fan oven grill today, 2.5KW to preheat, 1.5 to cook, around .75 as a grill. 45W after cooking with the door open, 20W with the door closed was a bit of a surprise.

For the relatively low cost of a plug in power meter or a smart plug with metering, I think they are well worth getting in order to get appliance specific figures. You only use them for a week or two per household, so perhaps pass one around the office or your relatives once you have measured everything in the house.

That's a good idea, especially about sharing them. I was thinking ballpark figures and just looking at usage as you go; I live alone in a small flat and intend to just have things on when I really need them from now on, so unless the power meter showed me that a particular piece of equipment was being really inefficient and I need to change it, I don't think I would get payback on buying one just for myself. 

IAMIAM

I find my steam mop and charging my cordless shark vacuums the two most expensive things in my home. I use them both regularly and have noticed they cause useage to go through the roof! 

PennineAcute

I connected a ring door bell in May and also bought their solar panel.  Not needed a charge yet and currently on 98%.