I'm thinking about turning my electricity OFF over night

[LaurieFairyCake]

So last night before bed I took a meter reading and right now another

I've used 6 units of electricity over night (only me and Dh, pretty sure the dogs aren't boiling kettles over night)

That works out at £0.85 a night, £25.33 A MONTH

The things that are running every night is fridge freezer, phone chargers, laptop chargers, the clock on the cooker

I've read it's fine to turn off the fridge freezer (no meat in it) as it won't spoil in 8 hours

I can't believe I would save £25 a month doing this !

Anything I've overlooked?

ive now taken a meter reading and set a timer for an hour, with everything turned off bar what would be on at night, curious to see what electric usage is through for an hour

@TILFA

Appliances, including central heating, don't work less if turned on all the time. They are turned on or off; they don't work harder when you turn it back on, it just continues to work in the same way as it did prior to turning it off.

The fridge/freezer will "warm up" overnight if turned off, so when it's turned on again, it will stay "on" for longer to get the temperature back down.

Same with central heating - when it's on 24/7, it will constantly be on and off to keep the temperature at 20 degrees or whatever. If off overnight, temperature may fall to say 10 degrees, so the central heating will then be on for a long continuous period to get the temperature back up to 20.

So, no they don't work "harder", as, as you say, thermostats are basically on-off switches, but they will stay "on" longer to get the temperature back to the setting.

OP Well then, just switch it off at the wall. It won't use power. Or unplug it if you prefer.

Have you read the link I sent above about how much power devices on standby use? The Energy Saving Trust estimates £80 per year for an average household. Link again: lookaftermybills.com/blog/should-you-turn-plugs-off-at-the-wall-to-save/

@TacoCats

Just like when your not using gas, there's still gas in the pipes so your still "using" gas even when your not.

Unless there's a leak in the pipes, if nothing is turned on, there'll be no "flow" in the pipes, so no usage of gas. The gas in the pipes will be static.

I don't know about You op but my smoke alarms/heat detectors/ carbon monoxide detectors are all wired into the mains. I would not turn my mains off just for that reason alone.

Sorry dumb idea with fridge and freezers to run.

How much?!!

6kWh just over night is ridiculous. I use around a tenth of that amount overnight. In fact I use about 3-4kWh in total on any given day.

Why not turn everything off bar the fridge freezer and seeing what just that uses for one night?

This seems like the logical next experiment. I wouldn't gamble with frozen food.

you cant do that every night its ridiculous

and dont you eat food you say both are emty what do you eat then

@Arghlife

Haven't read the while thread, but you also need to actually take the plugs out, not just turn it off at the wall. Recently had my oven installed and the electrician told me this

this. is nonsense. (at least in terms of energy saving)

a switch is a physical break in the circuit, exactly the same electrically as removing the plug.

depending on your sockets, and the most likely situation is that the switch only disconnects the live, not the neutral or earth, which leaves the circuit / device potentially vulnerable to a spike on one of the connected wires.

Never seen it happen ever, even in houses hit directly by lightning.

And if you're going to turn it all off at night, then you also need to do "daytime" readings to compare a typical day's usage when the fridge has been on overnight along with chargers etc., against a typical day's use when you turn on the fridge after it being turned off the night before and charge your devices in the daytime. I would expect your daytime usage to be more than normal, and your "savings" won't be as high as you think.

Instead of your fridge clicking on/off throughout the day just to keep the temperature steady, it will probably be on constantly for a couple of hours when you turn it on to get it back to the temperature set after it's been warming up overnight.

My oven plugs into a socket but the socket is behind the oven! There is then the red switch on the wall by the oven which you can turn on and off

Freezers start to thaw quite quickly when the power is switched off (or the door left open etc). If it’s only dog food in there, why don’t you switch to tins then you won’t need a freezer.

@FixTheBone

depending on your sockets, and the most likely situation is that the switch only disconnects the live, not the neutral or earth, which leaves the circuit / device potentially vulnerable to a spike on one of the connected wires.

I agree with you if the house is wired correctly, fully compliant, etc.

But, in a previous house we lived in, some bodger had completely undermined the independent circuitry by "bridging" the circuits unwittingly when he'd been adding sockets, lights, etc. He'd somehow created a "common" neutral than transcended the individual circuits, so even if one circuit was "off" by tripping the circuit breaker, there'd still be some residual current in it, which somehow fed back a small amount of power to the devices on the circuit (maybe via the Earth cable). The most obvious case was a flourescent light which still glowed at a very low brightness when switched off at the wall switch. When I removed wall sockets for decorating, despite all the socket circuits being tripped off at the distribution board, I still got an electrical shock once when I touched the negative wire. I tried the same after turning off the light and other circuits and there was no shock.

I got electricians in who did loads of testing with their meters and basically condemned it, saying it needed a complete re-wire as their meters were showing problems on every circuit. I asked them to try to trace the problems first as the wiring etc wasn't old/damaged, just the way it had been connected. They spent a couple of days taking all the switches/sockets off, tracing the wires as best they could, but eventually said it would be quicker to rip out the wires and put new in, which they did!

I switch off as many items as possible at the wall plug. All that has to stay on are:
Fridge and separate fridge-freezer (I'll combine to just one bigger fridge-freezer when this old one needs replacing)
Vivarium heater

Do u have a phone charger, watch winder, house alarm, combi boiler also runs on electric, de humidifier, game consoles, the list goes on, fish tank..

And electricity isn't like either of these in that it doesn't sit in the pipes ready to flow when something is turned on. When a circuit is completed, electricity can flow. When the circuit is broken e.g. switching something off, electricity doesn't flow. That's primary school physics surely?

Actually it is. Electrical wiring contains free moving delocalized electrons. When you turn something on, electrons flow down the wire. When you turn it off, the electrons are still in the wire, but they don’t move along it.

However, it doesn’t alter the fact that the poster you are responding to is talking bollocks. If the electrons can flow across an open socket switch, there is something wrong with it.

..sorry sent too soon!

Things left on 24/7:
Fridge and fridge-freezer
Vivarium heater
Boiler programmer
Broadband router
Alexa

I'm pretty sure the fridge and freezer would use more power cooling back to the correct temperature each morning than they use maintaining that temperature overnight.

I have smart plugs that are voice-controlled with Alexa, that switch the TV and Sky box off at the wall, also one that switches on a light just inside the door. I only leave the Sky box on at the mains if it's set to record something when I'm out or asleep. It takes about 3 minutes to initialise each time it's switched back on, and it doesn't lose any recordings.

I have a battery clock on the kitchen windowsill so the oven clock doesn't need to be on. The oven works without the time set, so when it's switched back on at the wall the clock beeps and reads 12.00, I just press the clock button once so the oven can function but don't reset the clock. I never use the delay setting and I use Alexa as a cooking timer.

Washing machine and dishwasher, kettle, toaster and microwave are all switched off at the wall when not in use.

My phone charges in an hour or less, it doesn't need to be on charge all night. If you're able to, charge the phone in the car, or at work if it's possible and permitted!

i would think its your laptop chargers that are eating your electricity.

I've been experimenting myself, i usually leave my laptop plugged in and my tablet/phone charging overnight, i've recently taken to charging them in the evening, and then turning the plug off overnight, usage dropped.

Get yourself some smart plugs that you can switch off via your phone, and turn the sockets off with tv/chargers plugged in overnight.
Anything with a standby light is using power.

4hr eco wash? how do you find time to wash everything?

My gazillion hour eco wash doesn't wash as clean as the short cycles with more agitation. It might be different if we weren't limited to non-bio powder.

@LaurieFairyCake

I don't rent my property

And yes I have 2 lots of Botox a year, and the money I save doing this will pay for half of it !

We thought putting the milk/yoghurt in the freezer part of the fridge freezer overnight would be a genius idea - they won't freeze - and they can go back on in the fridge in the morning

You have a rental property-15.1.2022 you posted about setting it up. Its bonkers to be talking about putting yoghurts outside to save 85p per night when you are clearly far from broke. Im all for money saving but this thread is in poor taste.

You would use more by turning your fridge/freezer off and it having to cool down, and you risk potentially spoiling food in your fridge, you would be better off turning all your switches off so nothing is on standby or turning all trips off apart from the kitchen.

Jesus, settle down Columbo. People can post what they like.

Swapping stuff between freezer and fridge is not going to affect overall energy use of your appliance, is it?