To switch electricity off at the fuse box?

[CrapBucket]

I've signed up to this energy saving session thing that is all over the news. Where you don't use your appliances etc for certain time slots.

Rather than go round checking each room, and making sure teenagers are actually switching things off, I thought I would just flick the main fuse switch thingy. Super efficient (Yes I am lazy)

Does anyone know if this will work as a plan, the meter will still work I assume? So Octopus can see I have used zero energy?

I will keep fridge and freezer doors shut. TBH we will probably all go out for the whole time anyway.

😦

Seems like a good idea to me - not sure why you got the response above mine!

Don’t think it’s a ridiculous idea but your fridge freezer will use more power than usual when you switch things on again, to bring it back down to temperature

so personally before you all go out I’d set everyone a quick 2 minute challenge to make sure that everything is off and nothing on standby.

if you just let it do it’s thing the f/f won’t use much power at all. Far more if you faff around with it.

I would think it would work.

Good look with resetting everything though.

Also, remember every time you switch something on/off there is a voltage surge. I am not sure what the surge is for switching on at a fuse box (consumer unit), but it wouldn't surprise me if it was higher than just using individual wall switches because you are turning everything on at once/going through RCDs etc. I don't know for sure though.

So you may find if you keep doing it some stuff will die. And then you will save even more money not using it.

If you switch off the electricity completely, won't your WiFi go down? Mine does if there's a power cut or the PAYG runs out. Your teenagers might not thank you for that!

Great if you don't want your hardwired smoke alarms to work I suppose...

They will work...that's what the battery is for.

Aren't these schemes about not using high demand appliances (cookers/hairdryers/tumble dryers) etc at certain times, not completely turning everything off?

Do you have wired in smoke alarm detectors, burgler alarm? It will also switch off your WiFi and phone line, so you'll miss emails, and can't even make/receive emergency calls. But sure, it's a sledgehammer way to save energy. Have you been approached yet by your supplier for money in exchange for no-use during peak hours? If not, I would wait, as I thought that payment offers would be depending on how much you had used in the past, so if you are a high user you would be approached with a higher discount if you shift pattern.

Do you have wired in smoke alarm detectors, burgler alarm? It will also switch off your WiFi and phone line, so you'll miss emails, and can't even make/receive emergency calls. But sure, it's a sledgehammer way to save energy. Have you been approached yet by your supplier for money in exchange for no-use during peak hours? If not, I would wait, as I thought that payment offers would be depending on how much you had used in the past, so if you are a high user you would be approached with a higher discount if you shift pattern.

Some energy use is unavoidable. Don't turn anything essential off - please make sure you stay warm, safe and healthy! From the energy website

Unless you have really old, inefficient appliances and electronics, background electricity usage is so minimal that you will literally be saving yourself no more than a couple of pounds a month doing this. And as somebody else said, your fridge-freezer will use more energy getting itself back down to temperature again after a switch off. Much more useful to look at which of your appliances are using more electricity than you think and then minimising their usage, so less oven usage, hairdryer, only boiling the water you need in the kettle etc.

I accidentally managed this a while ago (switch is near the floor in the garage, I hit it when moving things around). I couldn't work out why the electricity was off to start with, what was particularly confusing was that the meter dials were still turning! So while it should work for you, it might not

Oh yes, only do this please if your fuse box has surge protection, or you use surge protected extension cables for everything, or you could literally blow up all your lights and appliances.

That sounds a bit nuts, tbh.

You'll switch everything electrical off - and they'll need resetting all the time. Your alarm will start ringing & have to be turned off.

Surely you've chosen an option that minimises the cost of electricity at times of low usage?

Sorry I realised my post only uploaded after everyone else's better comments!

I wouldn’t turn the fridge freezer off, that’s crazy. It’ll cost more getting cold again.

I do wonder if people will start asking for their gas to be cut off at the mains soon. If you don’t cook with gas and can heat water with electric but cannot afford to put on your radiators why pay the standing charge.

Utterly pointless if you're turning the fridge & freezer off.
It will cost you twice as much as you save to get it back up and working.

Sounds miserable for everyone else in the house too.

Actually, I just checked my usage portal on the Bulb app and as an example - we were away for almost the whole of September bar three days. Our combined gas and electricity bill for the month was £24, of which over £16 was standing charge, so that’s less than £8 of actual power usage, or which I’ll assume at least two thirds was used in the three days we were here and using it. We’re talking tiny amounts to keep everything running on standby / when not in active use.

Correct

Please don’t do this. Are you going to need to completely switch all power off to afford to live or just because you want to save money? Not only is it completely nuts, your children will despise you for it. I have a friend who did this at varying times every night whether they had work to do or needed showers, all 3 of his children think he’s a spiteful crazy nasty old man and I kind of agree

octopus.energy/blog/saving-sessions-faqs/
^info about how the scheme works if anyone wants more info.

Surely it would be easier, and ultimately cheaper if you're going to have to get your fridge/freezer cold again, to just not use those appliances that cost a lot of money to run.

Thing like lights cost very little to run so why would you go to the inconvenience of turning them all off and then you say you're probably go out.

What are you going to do to make the savings worthwhile, walk the streets for the time everything's turned off and then go back to a freezing cold house?

Are you sure you've thought this through?

Won’t that put your smart meter off line (Wi-Fi and electricity off) so you won’t actually be able to demonstrate that you’re using less energy at peak times and therefore negate the whole point of doing it?