Switching off overnight

RG2015

A little while back I calculated that switching off items overnight will save me about £1 per month. I wasn't too concerned and therefore do not run around the house switching off 20 or so items at the wall. With the current increases it may increase 2 or 3 fold so it is now getting my attention.

Out of curiosity I would be interested to know what others do.

northernstar007

only items left running 24/7 fridge, freezer, router, firestick and hive everything else is OFF, skybox off 24/7

Robgmun

northernstar007 said:

only items left running 24/7 fridge, freezer, router, firestick and hive everything else is OFF, skybox off 24/7

Similar, 24/7 fridge, freezer, router and CCTV. Everything else is off, made much easier by having most things on smart plugs with a remote

Mstty

Robgmun said:

northernstar007 said:

only items left running 24/7 fridge, freezer, router, firestick and hive everything else is OFF, skybox off 24/7

Similar, 24/7 fridge, freezer, router and CCTV. Everything else is off, made much easier by having most things on smart plugs with a remote

Don't forget each smart plug(WiFi) could use between £4.50-£7.00 a year at October 51.8p kWh rates if you have lots of them.

I suspect the cheaper Chinese Amazon and eBay brands may even use more, just a thought.

wrf12345

Only the freezer runs at mine but I was turning everything else off decades ago. I have recently permanently turned the fridge off as it was going manic in the heat, being 35 years old and starting to rust on the outside as the insulation decays inside it. Don't really miss it and I stopped drinking milk when they put the prices for a pint up by an absurd amount, which was the only real reason to have the fridge running, other than as storage for things that might attract insects once open. Saves 0.4kw a day in the heat, probably half that in cooler weather. Alcohol I can slip into the freezer for a short time to get it at a nice temp to drink. Vegetables and fruit did not fare well in the fridge, even in the heat the only thing to catch me out was a kg pack of carrots, one or two might go off before I got to eat them if I did not carefully inspect them at purchase.

FreeBear

Mstty said: Don't forget each smart plug(WiFi) could use between £4.50-£7.00 a year at October 51.8p kWh rates if you have lots of them.

Got a few smart WiFi enabled light switches here drawing around 0.3-0.5W each - Could possibly get that down a bit by tweaking the internal power saving functions..

Cost for the year (assuming 52p/KWh), £1.37 to £2.30 each.

matelodave

We've always shut stuff off overnight except for the fridge, freezer, SKY box, router and surveillance cameras. Everything els e gets switched off either at the socket or where the socket is inaccessible with a remote controlled adapter when it's not being used.

We started doing it when we found that our electric recliner chairs were chewing through 15w each, just by being plugged in, likewise some other stuff was consuming several watts continuously  just by being on standby. Anything on standby will use some power, it's only stuff thats has a positive switch or that's shut off at the socket that doesn't.

I know an odd watt wasted here and there may not sound like a lot but just one wat continuously uses 8.76kwh a year thats around £5 a year after the October price increases. It doesn't take long to ramp up a fair few quid by leaving stuff on standby or chargers plugged in when not required.

Even the clock on the microwave over uses 2 watts = £10 a year, and again there's one on on the oven, that's another £10 a year, Just have a look around and see what you could save just by turning stuff off, rather than leaving it on standby.

sevenhills

I have just re-wired my TV set up. It wouldn't work without my Freeview box being switched on, so I now have the aerial direct into the TV. Not used the DVD or Freeview box for a long time.
So it might have used more energy

victor2

I only switch most things off if we're going to be away for the night, or longer. House uses about 1.8kWh per day then, with only the Fridge/freezer, house alarm, LED light on timer, LED nightlight upstairs, and external PIR security light on. House is probably about 3.6kWh per day when "idle" otherwise.

Most irritating device is my Virgin hub, which uses 11W even in modem only mode (because its WiFi is useless) and the separate WiFi router, which uses between 7 and 11 watts. Need it on 24/7 because we have relatives in other time zones who like to call and chat at unsociable hours here! Plus my computer runs a backup to the cloud every night.

Could permanently shut off the PVR, but it records F1 races and it's nice to catch up on them and fast forward through the ads and other boring bits. Do unplug it out of season.

TV on standy uses around 0.5W, microwave clock shows on my mains monitor plug at 0.0W, so very little. Got a few smart sockets driven by an app, plus two switches driven by the same app to control kitchen LED uplighting. The monitor records 0.0W for those on standby, but they obviously use a tiny amount. Three or four phone/tablet chargers permanently plugged in, but when I plugged 4 into an extension on a monitor, with nothing charging, they showed a total of 0.0W - the monitor does work, I checked it with an LED light!

HumberFlyer

victor2 said:

I only switch most things off if we're going to be away for the night, or longer. House uses about 1.8kWh per day then, with only the Fridge/freezer, house alarm, LED light on timer, LED nightlight upstairs, and external PIR security light on. House is probably about 3.6kWh per day when "idle" otherwise.

Most irritating device is my Virgin hub, which uses 11W even in modem only mode (because its WiFi is useless) and the separate WiFi router, which uses between 7 and 11 watts. Need it on 24/7 because we have relatives in other time zones who like to call and chat at unsociable hours here! Plus my computer runs a backup to the cloud every night.

Could permanently shut off the PVR, but it records F1 races and it's nice to catch up on them and fast forward through the ads and other boring bits. Do unplug it out of season.

TV on standy uses around 0.5W, microwave clock shows on my mains monitor plug at 0.0W, so very little. Got a few smart sockets driven by an app, plus two switches driven by the same app to control kitchen LED uplighting. The monitor records 0.0W for those on standby, but they obviously use a tiny amount. Three or four phone/tablet chargers permanently plugged in, but when I plugged 4 into an extension on a monitor, with nothing charging, they showed a total of 0.0W - the monitor does work, I checked it with an LED light!

Brilliant .... Good to see a post that tells us, and I think I new, that not everything on stanby uses "quite a bit" of energy. The Media are the worst for there posting of stupid costs of things on standby......... THE VAMPIRE DEVICES as they like to be known as.

Coffeekup

I turn everything off at the wall apart from FF, whenever no one is home and when asleep. A cd player, amp, TV, sky box, pc, monitor, dvd player, toaster and a washing machine gets turned off. I have been doing this since September last year, it's saved me 30 kWh's a month over previous 3 year's usage.
The microwave has been off since last September and hasn't been back on as I don't use it, which was one of the culprit's above that reduced my usage.