Energy and money saving tips from me

thetriggerhappypwner

Good morning...

Since the increase in energy bills, and generally the cost of living, I have been finding ways to cut back on my outgoings.  And I have put together some tips that have helped me almost half my energy costs after the cost of living.  So here goes...

Energy:

• Use your washing machine ONLY when it is full.  This will save on both electricity, water and the use of detergent and fabric softner.
• Have solar panels installed if possible.  Some energy companies will do this free of charge I believe.
• Switch everything off at the wall when not in use, this includes TV's, electric cookers, washing machines, microwaves, computers and lights.
• Change all of your lighting to LED if possible, this will significantly reduce your energy use.
• If you use a laptop, to check emails for example, use it on battery as much as possible.
• Turn off your boiler when not in use for extended periods.  This will save you money on gas, and the electricity to power it, this works especially well on a combi boiler, has for me.

Other tips:

• Use rechargeable batteries.  These can be used in analog wall clocks, game console controllers, anything that takes batteries, but dont require the full 1.5v to run.  LCD display type clocks should get 1 time use Energizer Ultimate Lithium (had a set of 2 in a radio controlled clock in my hallway running on a pair of these since May 2015, and they are still running).  Weather stations should get rechargeable lithium batteries.
• Use small camping solar panels to charge your mobile phone, tablets, power banks, batteries (using a USB charger) and other USB chargeable devices.  Stop buying alkaline and zinc batteries, they are not only bad for the environment, but leak after a while, especially zinc batteries.
• Use Energizer Ultimate Lithium in remote controls.  Remote controls use very little power, and the batteries will last almost forever, and wont leak.  A good investment for me especially.  No need to replace for a long time.

I will update this post (if allowed) with more tips in due course.

CSI_Yorkshire

It's good that you would think to write this post, but I'll unfortunately need to disagree with your anecdotal experience.

If one of your tips to reduce your energy bill is "get solar panels", then you can neglect almost everything else on the list as their effect will be to small to notice.

Changing halogens to LEDs can make some savings, but changing CFLs for LEDs takes quite a while to save enough money to cover the cost of the bulbs.

Most modern electrical equipment has such low standby consumption that it's pennies you save turning them off at the wall.  There are a few exceptions, but it does not take a lot of energy to run the clock on your cooker.

Difference between using a laptop plugged in and using it in battery then plugging it in to recharge the battery? Almost zero.

Modern boilers (ie without a pilot light) don't use any gas when they're not in use, so turning them off will save you nothing.

Very very little difference between expensively branded batteries and cheap brand batteries.  In tests, the different prices scatter wildly through the rankings.  The last I saw had a supermarket own brand at the top.

pseudodox

You may have got lucky with your boiler but there is a risk in turning it off that would cost far more than any saving.  As said above if there is no pilot then there is no gas saving.  My boiler has a failsafe mode that means even if I don't have the heating on & don't draw hot water for a prolonged period it kicks in briefly to activate the pump.  With my first boiler which was heating only (hot water came via a separate multipoint) I turned it off for the summer - it did have a pilot so I reckoned to save the gas.  Come the autumn switch on the pump had seized - leading to repair costs and pump replacement.  After that in summer I still aimed to save the pilot gas but turned the boiler on once per week & briefly fired it up & never had another pump seizure.  

My boiler does not have a pilot & when it kicks in does not fire up any gas, just briefly springs to life, hums for 30 seconds & is using so little electric it is not discernible.  It was installed earlier this year & when the installer warned against turning it off he was quite surprised that I already knew the dangers.  Although of course he was kept busy with work replacing seized pumps!

QrizB

That's a good list of money-saving ideas but I have to quibble with a couple of them.

thetriggerhappypwner said:

• Use small camping solar panels to charge batteries
  
• Use Energizer Ultimate Lithium in remote controls and clocks.

Small camping solar panels are unlikely to ever pay for themselves in their life. A rooftop solar panel, where you can benefit from every single hour of daylight in the year, is only financially viable at a price of around £1.50 a watt (and cheaper is better). Small camping panels tend to cost more than this, plus (unless you've got a very odd setup) you'll only use a small fraction of their maximum possible output. For most people it's better (cheaper) to charge devices from the mains.

Energizer Ultimate Lithium (and similar exotic primary cells from other manufacturers) are really expensive, eg. £2.50 a cell at Argos - more than twice the price of alkaline cells. They have a use case for high-drain applications, like older digital cameras and photo lights/flashes. In low-drain applications like remote controls and clocks they are no better than those Duracells. See the capacity-vs-drain chart on the Energizer data sheet here.

jbuchanangb

My boiler has a failsafe mode that means even if I don't have the heating on & don't draw hot water for a prolonged period it kicks in briefly to activate the pump.

Interesting. I have heard my boiler whirring recently when it is set to hot water only after 8pm, and all my hot water is provided by solar thermal unless we have at least 2 cloudy days. I wondered what it was up to.

Shedman

"Switch everything off at the wall when not in use, this includes TV's, electric cookers, washing machines, microwaves, computers and lights"

Not necessarily good advice as the surge from switching appliances back on can shorten their life or worse cause them to breakdown and this risk probably outweighs the miniscule saving from turning them off rather leaving in standby (especially with appliances less than 10 years old).  The exceptions might be Sky/Freeview boxes and AV amps as they can draw a fair amount in standby depending on how they are set up. Also some appliances, eg OLED TVs, need to be left on standby for overnight refreshes and it is also not a good idea to keep switching wifi routers on and off as speed can fall as they resync to a lower speed thinking there is a poor line (although this seems not to be such an issue with fibre as opposed to ADSL).

CSI_Yorkshire

Let's turn this thread more positive now - following the laudable sentiment of the OP.  What about things that do make a big difference.

We've already had getting solar if you can, that makes a big difference.  LEDs for halogen downlights (which some kitchens seem to have hundreds of) is another big step if you have many.

I'd add some:

• If you have a condensing boiler, try and get your system set up so it is efficiently working - this is often a lower flow and return temperature than older systems were set at.
• Draft excluders.  Seal the gaps where you can and you might be surprised at how much less heating you need.
• Loft insulation.  If you've only got 100mm, top up.
• If you have an immersion heater, check that it's only on when you need it.  They are very easy to forget to turn off when hidden in a cupboard.

Mainly heating-focused, because for most people heating (space heating and hot water) is the biggest consumer of energy.

markin

With the laptop you are waisting  power charging up a battery, you don't get back every watt you use to charge it up, simply change the power setting to the same as when it's on battery, dimmer screen, lower cpu, ect.

thetriggerhappypwner

To put a small point of clarification here...
I suggested using lithium batteries for remotes because they don't leak after a while, alkaline/zinc batteries do.
Zinc are, in my experience, the worst offenders for leakage.