Saving Electricity

[Wavingnotdowning]

I hope I'm not getting anal about our usage - which seems to be high. I have tried an audit of the house, going round room by room and have started recording daily usage, which i have got down from 20kWh to 14kWh. That still works out a lot more than average use. There are only 2 of us, plus the dog, and I don't think she uses any! Has anyone found ways of making a significant difference?

Do you work from home?

DO you have an electric shower? That uses a lot.

Check your lighting. Old style halogen bulbs use a lot and sometimes there's a few of those in a room.

What are your laundry habits? If you wash things after one wear/use and use the fast cycles instead of the longer eco versions and tumble dry when you could line dry/use an airer, there's lots of scope to cut down there.

Do you have a desktop PC? Some have quite powerful fans (300 to 500 W) so can add up if they're left on for hours.

Do you use an oven a lot? If so, an air fryer is a game changer as cooks much faster and uses less power.

What's your gas like? We use more electricity than average, because our shower and all cooking is with electricity, and we have a dishwasher, so we're not washing up with gas heated water. But our gas is less than it could be because it's only a combi boiler for the central heating.

That's high...we are on 7 kwh a day down from 10 this time last year.
I've stopped using the tumble dryer.

Turn everything off at night
dont use tumble dryer or dishwasher

The problem is high standing charges mean reducing your usage will have a disappointing effect on your bill :(

Standing charge has no impact on the kWh you use each day.
op is does sound high if you aren’t using electric heating.

We were also averaging about 20kWh a day over the course of the year, but we only have electic, no gas, so that's our heating and hot water too.

Some excellent suggestions already, I strongly second the line drying vs tumble drier, and using an air fryer. I think I need to get in the habit of turning off my PC, I tend to leave it on over night. It does go into sleep mode, but wakes when the cats jump on the keyboard.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers It's probably cheaper to use a dishwasher than to do the same amount of washing up by hand and it uses a lot less water.

We have a new one and on the eco cycle it uses 0.7 kW, so a fairly small portion of the average daily use. Even if your dishwasher is older it still probably only uses 1-2 kW per cycle at most.

Yes, standing charges have increased, but its about £15 pm for electricity, whereas the OP is probably spending about £120 pm on her units, so definitely worth trying to cut usage. Plus also the environmental benefits.

Most modern appliances use very little - especially if you’re using the washers on eco settings. I did have a fridge go rogue once though and it ate through the leccy - so obviously I got a new one.

putting everything completely off vs standby at night realistically achieves sweet fa.

I've got positively anal about turning lights off in empty rooms.

And I now do a lot of my laundry on a cold wash. Things still seem to come out perfectly clean.

This really annoys me. It means that you are spending money even if you're away for a month.

I think there would be a greater incentive for people to cut back if standing charges were abolished and the cost was only for what you actually use.

I always line dry and don't wash too often. I have a big chest freezer and batch cook in the slow cooker, then freeze, which I think saves money. I have a growing feeling that the culprit in all this is my husbands beautiful fish pond, with waterfall and filter system, so I think I may have to suck it up - unless we have fish for tea! 😱

There was an article in the DM this week about how we think we are cutting down on electric, and the reality.
Slow cookers were one they said wasn’t much of a saving, if a saving at all.
It was a good article if anyone can do a link, I think it was in the money section.

If the DM said that slow cookers were not saving electricity then its likely to be as accurate as the typical DM article, ie not very, because they use hardly any fuel compared with putting the oven on. Slow cookers are only expensive to run if you compare them with having a salad instead.

The article probably used the same source that claimed that people were spending £150 a year leaving TVs etc on standby when the reality is that it's probably less than a quarter of that unless you have multiple 20 YO TVs.

OP, it almost certainly is the fishpond (what's the rating of the pumps? Any heating for frost protection?)

No, the article states that leaving things on stand by and using LED bulbs was costing pennies.

No heating or frost protection, and I must admit that I love the pond, so I think it'll have to stay as it is as he only bought a new system to replace our 12 year old one last year. It is really beautiful - and he doesn't have any other expensive hobbies.

But they've used incorrect figures for the slow cooker. They've either used 0.64 kW instead of 0.064 kW per hour or they've taken the total consumption in 8 hours and multiplied it by 8 again.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-10778447/From-shorter-showers-turning-lights-money-energy-cutting-tips-really-save.html

Might be worth taking a meter reading before you go to bed and when you get up, that could help pin point if it's the pond. Our meter wouldn't move much over night but if the pond say uses 6kwh a day, you'd expect it to move a couple of kwh overnight. If it is the pond and it gives you both pleasure, like you say you might have to suck it up. Sound silly, but the fish also probably feel like pets. DH (jokingly) asked how much the cats cost in regard to cut back - he was told immediately they're not going!

Dishwashers, hair dryers and kettles can also use a lot of electricity. A kettle might only be on for a short while, but some people will only use theirs 2-3 times a day, others 6-7 times.

Could the pond be on a timer - at least for the waterfall? Perhaps to go off overnight or to run 15 mins of each hour. Would that be enough for it to remain healthy?

Yes - that's a thought, I'll ask him about a timer.

Just found this ...Your biological filter is teaming with bacteria that cleans up the toxins in the water, turning of the pump will starve the filter of oxygen killing off the bacteria and when you turn the pump back on all the dead bacteria is pumped into your pond, not nice. So, I think it has to stay on. It does bring a lot of joy though.

Yes, I remember reading recently about how much electricity ponds use.

Like you, I'd accept the cost of the pond/hobby/whatever, but if I was trying to cut down usage I'd want to check that's what was causing the excess usage, in case it's not.

We’ve just had solar panels fitted. Last week, we spent £3.12 on electricity! Before the panels, we spent on average over £25 a week. I appreciate panels are a big expense (ours are on finance for 5 years) but really, it’s the only way to save properly I reckon.

Yeah, I read that. LED lights were probably the best thing you can do I think it said. I was also surprised to see how little you saved by turning off lights each time you left the room (probably won’t stop me though) 😆