What things you can you turn off at the plug overnight?

[Hellorhighwater]

I know, it’s another energy thread. After reading about the poster who was thinking of turning her electric off overnight, I was wondering about what things you can safely switch off at night (or when not in use) and if it would save money. We are unusually broke just now, but I’m sure some things use more energy (or would otherwise be more hassle, like the router) if they are switched off and on and I’m not risking the fridge myself.

I was specifically thinking of my boiling water tap (it was here when we moved in). Would it take more energy heating up everyday than staying on overnight? I don’t use it much, but I don’t have a kettle, so I’d have to boil water on the hob if I turned it off altogether.

I might turn off the phone chargers, but my phone says it will finish charging at 5.30am, so will it stop charging at all, or is that some ‘smart’ feature and it will adapt to charging just for an hour if I switch the charger off at night?

The router strops and doesn’t come back online for ages if the power goes off, so I won’t mess about with that. I am going to see if Alexa will put up with it. I’m pretty dependent on her to do a lot of morning nagging, though, so she better be good at mornings! It won’t be worth it if it takes ages to reconnect.

I do turn my oven off, because I don’t use it much, but I’m leaving the microwave on. I use it all the time, and if you switch it off, you have to reset the time before you can use it, and I can’t be doing with fiddling with it every morning before my coffee, unless anyone knows any clever tricks?

Obviously, lots of things are easy. Toaster, washing machine, telly, printer etc. but some things seem like they would be less straightforward, especially anything which connects to WiFi.

I’ve taken a meter reading to see what use (or rather don’t use!) overnight and I’ll channel my inner Dad and go round turning things off tomorrow and see what savings there are to be made. It’s more productive than worrying about the bills (although it may not produce a less worrisome bill!)

Watching with interest

I'd have to move half the furniture in the house to do that, I like wires and switches hidden.

How many things actually draw electricity when the plug is on though? So the igniting switch for the oven/hob is on, but the oven/hob isn't in use - does it actually draw any electric?

Things that are plugged in but not on will not draw any power.
Things that are plugged in and on standby won't draw much power - nowadays devices draw little power on standby.
A phone will charge and then not draw anymore power once charged.

I don't think you will save much money if you turn things off overnight - in our house, we have a power usage of 70 watts - so overnight, that;'s about 500 watt hours - 14 p. If we halved it by turning things off, that would be 7p. So about £2 a month.

I suppose it's up to you to see if that's worthwhile?

What happened to that thread I can't find it

Things like a microwave will use very little energy when not in use. I am not an expert but I understand that the things that use most energy (and will therefore make a difference) are things that heat up or cool down. From the things you have listed it sounds like your boiling water tap might use a fair amount. Could you go without it?

Why does your phone take so long to charge? You aren’t really meant to use chargers overnight due to fire risk

On the hot water tap this might help you www.which.co.uk/news/2019/01/are-instant-hot-water-taps-really-cheaper-than-kettles/
They are about 3p a day to run compared to 2.3p each time you boil a electric kettle. If you boil water on an induction hob it is around 1p a time and 0.7p on a gas hob.

I don't think it is a good idea turning it off at night if you plan to use it during the day as it typically costs more to reheat water than retain it at temperature.

I think the main cost is the replacement filters. At around £60 a year for 2 they are about 16p a day so far exceed the electricity cost of running the tap.

I know you're not going to, but definitely do not turn your router off, they aren't designed for this and they can break if turned on and off.
I turn off kettle/toaster/coffee machine. Tv at the plugs, I don't charge anything overnight. I don't think I can do anything else, it is worrying though.

They are about 3p a day to run compared to 2.3p each time you boil a electric kettle. If you boil water on an induction hob it is around 1p a time and 0.7p on a gas hob

That's not really true.

Think about it. It uses the same amount of energy to boil water - if you boil 1 litre of it in 1 go or 100 ml of it in 10 goes.

So I could boil 1 litre of water in 1 go, and keep it warm using a boiling water tap

Or I could boil 200 ml of water in a kettle, use it and then repeat it 5 times.

Any water used in a boiling water kettle needs to be replaced, which means it needs energy to heat it up again.

You can't escape the laws of physics....

@toomuchlaundry

Why does your phone take so long to charge? You aren’t really meant to use chargers overnight due to fire risk

My phone has this "smart charging" where it registers that you often charge it overnight and charges slowly so it's done by the time you unplug it rather than charging quickly and sitting on full charge overnight. Not sure how a charger plugged in overnight is any more dangerous than any other device being on all night (all the ones that have a clock or wifi) or my laptop being plugged in literally all the time unless I leave the house with it.

You're not going to save any noticeable amount of money by unplugging things overnight. For nearly a decade, new appliances must use less than 0.5 W on standby which is a tiny tiny amount.

You'd save more by concentrating on whatever uses lots of heat, inefficient lighting and any desktop computers due to the cooling fans.

Possibly also considering changing any old appliances to newer more efficient versions, although I'm not even sure that's worth it.

Our fridge freezer is well over 20 years old, I tested it and it costs about £10 a month to power, whereas a new efficient one would be more like £4/5. But if a new one costs £400, that's about 6 years before we'll have recovered the cost, so it might be worth just letting it run until it breaks, I'm in two minds about this. I'm curious as to exactly how long it will last, but if it does go on forever, at some point we'll have been better to get a new one rather than soldiering on with the tatty looking more energy hungry one.

We always turn our router off at night and if we're out.
I have to unplug it to mow the lawn too.

Never had any problems or a broken router.

Like 20 yrs ago we tried turning off our router overnight -- don't do it. The sensitive electronics in routers can't take it, ours kept dying completely if treated like that.

My microwave & hob draw some energy when turned on because they have digital clock faces.

One presumes OP doesn't have a tumble dryer and takes fast showers?

@pussycatunpickingcrossesagain

We always turn our router off at night and if we're out. I have to unplug it to mow the lawn too.

Never had any problems or a broken router.

It doesn't use much energy - between 2 and 20 watts. So overnight - that's a max of say 160 watts. Which is about 3p

So give us a basic list of the things you have plugged in overnight so we can give an informed opinion rather than just a stab in the dark.

@lljkk

Like 20 yrs ago we tried turning off our router overnight -- don't do it. The sensitive electronics in routers can't take it, ours kept dying completely if treated like that.

My microwave & hob draw some energy when turned on because they have digital clock faces.

One presumes OP doesn't have a tumble dryer and takes fast showers?

I agree, they are designed to be left on. And very cheap to run so not really much point in turning it off.

I turn off the router at night, I suppose I have treated it like a charger. Chargers have always had the reputation of being a possible fire hazard.

@bellac11

I'd have to move half the furniture in the house to do that, I like wires and switches hidden.

I suggest not bothering. It makes absolutely no difference! Well, no measurable difference, anyway. I was planning to use smart plugs for the difficult to reach areas, but I think they are better used elsewhere for us.

To be absolutely fair, I didn’t mess about with my daughters room, and she does have various things on standby, but I will not be repeating the experiment until next week, as I’m not peering at the meter in my PJs at at 8am on a Saturday morning. I will keep the off things off, unless I’m using them, and see how it affects the things in the day.

At best, we are talking fractions of a unit for us. YMMV.

@cakeorwine

Things that are plugged in but not on will not draw any power. Things that are plugged in and on standby won't draw much power - nowadays devices draw little power on standby. A phone will charge and then not draw anymore power once charged.

I don't think you will save much money if you turn things off overnight - in our house, we have a power usage of 70 watts - so overnight, that;'s about 500 watt hours - 14 p. If we halved it by turning things off, that would be 7p. So about £2 a month.

I suppose it's up to you to see if that's worthwhile?

Unfortunately, we are in a position where a couple a quid month could make a difference somewhere. I’m keeping my shopping under £20 a week, for perspective.

Over the winter, I did all the gas things you are supposed to do, and saved 10% on my gas bill. I didn’t change my habits, just adjusted the flow rate, and put in draught prof strips etc etc. So we are still just as warm, but it’s cheaper. Who doesn’t want that?! My electric bill is much higher than the gas, so I’d hoped there were similar savings to be made. So far, that’s not the case!

If you are going to want to save power, I would try and get a good idea of the devices in your house that either use a lot of power over a reasonable time (e.g. an electric shower - 10000 watts and used for 5 - 10 minutes), or devices that don't use as much power but are on for a long time.

I am sure you know this - but a 50 watt device for 24 hours is 1200 watt hours - so 1.2 units of energy. That' s not a lot of power being drawn by it's continuously being drawn.

Make a list and see what differences you can make

@starfishmummy

So give us a basic list of the things you have plugged in overnight so we can give an informed opinion rather than just a stab in the dark.

Everything. Charge adapters (they have annoying lights, so I’d quite like to turn them off at night anyway) Alexa, My office set up, my sewing set up, toaster, coffee machine, washer, microwave. And freezers. I’ve always felt its over the top top turn everything off at plug (like something old people do!) but I’m in a position where I need to do what I can.

@twosticksandanapple

On the hot water tap this might help you www.which.co.uk/news/2019/01/are-instant-hot-water-taps-really-cheaper-than-kettles/ They are about 3p a day to run compared to 2.3p each time you boil a electric kettle. If you boil water on an induction hob it is around 1p a time and 0.7p on a gas hob.

I don't think it is a good idea turning it off at night if you plan to use it during the day as it typically costs more to reheat water than retain it at temperature.

I think the main cost is the replacement filters. At around £60 a year for 2 they are about 16p a day so far exceed the electricity cost of running the tap.

The 3p is the cost of running it all day on standby, so not really a fair comparison since if you actually use it to make a drink it will cost more, and the electricity cost to heat water you actually sue will be the same with hot water tap or a kettle - the saving is in heating only the amount of water you use. But, if the standby cost is 3p a day you could save 1p by turning it off for 8 hours overnight. Is £3.65 worth the effort? Mind you, electricity prices have tripled since that was written so maybe you’d save £10 ;)

@lljkk

Like 20 yrs ago we tried turning off our router overnight -- don't do it. The sensitive electronics in routers can't take it, ours kept dying completely if treated like that.

My microwave & hob draw some energy when turned on because they have digital clock faces.

One presumes OP doesn't have a tumble dryer and takes fast showers?

The clocks are annoying. You get used to them (we have lots of other clocks!)

I do in fact have a tumble drier, and I have long, hot baths! The tumbler was here when we moved in, and I don’t routinely use it. I’ve never had one before. It was useful when my kid was wetting the bed often, and I do use it once a week for some awful new school skirts which need either tumbling or ironing. I assume ironing uses less electric, but as I don’t generally iron anything at all, I don’t have an ironing board,, as the school skirts will be replaced by something that can hang to dry like everything else as soon as I can.

The baths (and a £6.50 a month national trust membership) are my only remaining treats. I’d really rather dick about with plug sockets every night if it meant I could keep them. Also, standby electric is electric I’m not using. I’d like to give up something that is no use to me first. I saved 10% on the gas bill without changing what we use, just what we were for and not using,, and had hoped to do the same with the electric.

Anyway, it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference.

@twosticksandanapple

On the hot water tap this might help you www.which.co.uk/news/2019/01/are-instant-hot-water-taps-really-cheaper-than-kettles/ They are about 3p a day to run compared to 2.3p each time you boil a electric kettle. If you boil water on an induction hob it is around 1p a time and 0.7p on a gas hob.

I don't think it is a good idea turning it off at night if you plan to use it during the day as it typically costs more to reheat water than retain it at temperature.

I think the main cost is the replacement filters. At around £60 a year for 2 they are about 16p a day so far exceed the electricity cost of running the tap.

This is super interesting - thank you