Washing Machine Delay Timer

JayBax72

I've been reading lot's of comments that recommend using the timer delay function of my washing machine.

I'm not on an economy 7 tarif so would it be cheaper for me to use this and if so, how much electricity would the machine use whilst it is standby without a program running?

JohnSwift10

If you are not on economy 7 then why do you think that delaying your washing would save electricity?

pfpf

depends on your Tariff. do you pay the same for Electricity at all times or are you on a Tariff that's time of use (TOU)?

if you're on a standard unit rate at all times it won't matter what time you do your washing.

there are some Tariffs that charge a different unit rate potentially every hour, these are the ones people will use timers for to use cheap times in the day for certain tasks. Octopus Agile is the main one that springs to mind.

JayBax72

To be honest, I'm not really sure why I think it would save money! There is such a lot of information about and alot of it is conflicting. I did see somewhere that using a machine delay at night means it users greener energy. Whilst it may not be cheaper it is cleaner environmentally.

Swipe

The delay timer on my Beko uses a couple of watts per hour extra when it's enabled.

MikeJXE

JayBax72 said:

To be honest, I'm not really sure why I think it would save money! There is such a lot of information about and alot of it is conflicting. I did see somewhere that using a machine delay at night means it users greener energy. Whilst it may not be cheaper it is cleaner environmentally.

You are correct a lot of it is conflicting and confusing 

How can you determine the difference between clean energy and dirty energy ? You use what is in the cables at the time 

I can't see how anyone can choose the energy that come from a windmill instead of what comes from a gas fired power station it's all mixed together afaik 

dunstonh

I did notice an article in one of the papers a month or two back that told people that they should do things off peak to save money.   It was an awful article as it failed to mention that it only applies to Economy 7 or other TOU tariffs.

Reed_Richards

It probably is greener to use electricity at night, it will certainly help balance the demand on the grid.  But unless you have an electricity tariff that charges you less for overnight use (the classic such tariff being "Economy 7") then it won't save you any money.  

Swipe

Also handy if you want to get your washing on the line first thing if you are going out for the day.

TheElectricCow

MikeJXE said:

JayBax72 said:

To be honest, I'm not really sure why I think it would save money! There is such a lot of information about and alot of it is conflicting. I did see somewhere that using a machine delay at night means it users greener energy. Whilst it may not be cheaper it is cleaner environmentally.

You are correct a lot of it is conflicting and confusing 

How can you determine the difference between clean energy and dirty energy ? You use what is in the cables at the time 

I can't see how anyone can choose the energy that come from a windmill instead of what comes from a gas fired power station it's all mixed together afaik 

That’s exactly how you’d determine the difference between clean and dirty energy, by using what’s in the cables at the times of day when those cables have a higher proportion of clean energy.

During peak hours on a cold winter’s evening the grid may need more energy than can be supplied from the clean sources such as wind turbines, so they have to fire up additional gas power stations etc. to be able to meet this demand. This means the overall mix of electricity in the cable was generated more from fossil fuels than other sources.

During the night there isn’t as much demand for energy so the extra power isn’t needed and those extra generators can be turned down/off. The wind doesn’t just stop blowing at night though so the turbines are still generating electricity cleanly resulting in a much higher proportion of the electricity in the cables being “clean”. 

So you’re right that it’s not quite a case of plugging your specific house into a wind turbine, but rather the “dirty” sources of electricity aren’t needed to be used and so simply aren’t contributing as much to that overall energy mix inside the cables that supply your property.

MeteredOut

I'd flip this on its head. Putting your washing on when the grid has more capacity (eg, overnight) does not mean you're using "cleaner" energy, but is allowing the grid to better balance its load and not have to add "dirty" energy in to accommodate the overall load ask. So, its kind of paying forward.