How do I reduce my electricity bills?

[laura032004]

Probably the wrong topic, but..

I've just phoned in an 'actual' reading to the elec company, and it was loads more than the estimate, leaving us £180 in debt to them. Not a major problem, as we were in credit with the gas, so just transferred that across, but it's left me wondering why we're using so much more than the 'average' family that they base their estimates on.

I am guilty of - leaving the computer on 24/7, leaving lights on at night (hallway/toilet/DS's room), leaving all elec appliances on at night (microwave/kettle/toaster/TV etc) and using the tumble drier quite a bit during the winter. Last night I did my best - turned everything off in the kitchen, turned the computer and the whole TV setup off etc, but it took ages.

Basically, what I want to know is what is going to make a major difference? Any tips for easy things I can do? I know I must go out and get all energy saving lightbulbs again. We're 75% of the way there, but I bought a load which were screw rather than bayonet fitting so thought I had loads, but they don't go in our lightsockets.

can you take the light bulbs back and replace them with the correct bulbs?

Don't leave the lights on at night; buy small night lights that go into the socket - I think they only use about one watt but they give enough light.

And turn off all electrical appliances at night and also when you are all out for the day.

It will make a difference. The less electricity you use, the less you pay.

you can also put this under 'ethical living'

My Winter Quarter is always a lot higher than other quarters, this is largely to do with heating (only have electric).
Not sure what will make a major difference I'm afraid. The little things though can all add-up. I got a power monitor last weekend, and found that if I left my laptop plugged in, it would still consume power (about 2 watts). So unplugging things may make some difference.
You could get a power monitor (note: I got this for £10 in-store, much lower price than on-line), and see which appliances in your home are using the most power, when on and in standby.

funnily enough we were measuring how much power our appliances use - I found that the computer needs to be switched off at the wall - it takes quite a bit even when it is "turned off". The other big culprit was the microwave. The TV was neglible - but the dv recorder was quite a bit more. Kettle was negligble too (I am guessing the toaster would be too).

I would get a nightlight for ds room/hallway and teach him to turn bathroom light on and off when he needs it.

And cut down on tumble drier use. Plus the low energy lightbulbs.

nannynick which shop did you get it from please?

Thanks for all the replies. Thought about the ethical living section, but was a bit worried, as I'm approaching it from a financial angle mainly! We are a bit eco concious too I promise (cloth nappies etc )

Belgo - the bulbs will go in our bedside lights, so they will get used, just much much more slowly!

DS1 can't yet reach the light switches, and he regularly makes a trip from his room to ours in the middle of the night, so I think the hall light is a must really. Is it very bad to leave that on all night?

Thanks for the info on the computer etc Throckenholt. I can't actually reach the switch for the computer (it's behind the desk, so I might have to have a think about that. There's quite a few plugs in it - printer, speakers, goodness knows what else, but there's 6 plugs in all, so it must make a bit of a difference.

I can unplug the TV etc easily, so will start doing that. I don't think I can bring myself to turn it off each time I go out, but overnight will be a start. Same with the microwave, as I only use that once or twice a day. Should switch on to use I suppose, then off again.

Dim question alert - do I need to remove the plug if I've got the switches that turn the power off on the wall plug socket?

Our gas usage is low apparently, but I think this is because we don't have our hot water turned on regularly, because we do use the heating a lot (SAHM with two kids!). We only turn it on for an hour if I'm bathing the kids (alternate nights only), as we have a dishwasher and an electric shower. We just wash hands etc in lukewarm water (even with just an hour every few days, the hot tank stays fairly warm).

There's some on Ebay Shannaratiger

Wow I never realised that things still drew electricity when not 'on'. I knew that chargers still did if left plugged in but not charging but not microwaves etc. Shall be anal from now on with turning things off!

Anyone tried one of these?

"Introducing the state-of-the-art Energy Saver... a revolutionary plug-in device that saves 5 to 30% of your electricity consumption. Simply plug in and start saving up to 30%."

microwave - yes - just switch it on when you need it - that is what we have decided to do.

With the computer - how about getting a plug board with a switch on - then you can switch it off from there instead of trying to get to the wall switch.

For the hall light - can you cahnge it to low energy - or if you have a socket in the wall use a night light there instead.

I am guessing the tumble dryer (and probably the washing machine) are your big users.

As far as things using energy when not "on" the computer and the microwave were the two most surprising to me. And also - we have some old fluorescent lights - (on a plug so we could measure them luckily) - the long tube type - and we were amazed that they were using about 3 times the bulb rating - so low enenrgy bulb but there must be something inside the unit that also takes a lot of power. Some new ones we also checked were better but still using about twice as much energy as the bulb required. So if you have old fluorescent lights - switch them off if you don't need them.

I'll second what throckenholt has said about some devices using a lot more energy than others when off but still plugged in. It must all depend on the efficiency of their transformers, so I don't think you can generalise and say all TVs good all microwaves bad for example. Our worst culprit was ds's electric keyboard. For some gagets it makes life easier if you have a switched extension lead, as we find alot of sockets are in awkward corners (TV for example).

So if something isnt on, but is still plugged in (Microwave / toaster) do they still use electric?

Have you thought about a dimmer? We leave the landing light on at night for ds, but turn it right down as low as it will go - my theory is that if it isnt so bright, its using less electric. They dont work well with energy sving bulbs though, as they flicker.

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My friend buys electricity on a card and said shes noticed a difference since she didnt use the plug in airfreshners anymore! She removed them when she saw the news pic of the womans kitchen ruined when one caught fire!

Knickers we have just had similar sized leccy and gas bills. Nearly passed out! Seemed extortionate, but then again my tumble drier goes at least once a day for an hour, we have a blow heater we use occasionally in our conservatory/play room etc. i am hoping it's a winter thing....

Our electric is about £25 per week (we have no gas here and are on a meter ). We have cut down as much as possible but it's still high. Our biggest gobbler is the water heater though.

I have started doing a wash in the evening, then putting it all on the drying rack overnight in the kitchen, then sticking it in the tumble dryer in the morning just to finish off. We have storage heaters here and dh tends to turn them off for a bit each day (I daren't, I'd forget to put them back on!!). I also turn the heaters right down when I go out just to save a bit.

You can also get something called a "peripheral socket" for your computer - then when you turn your computer off it turns off the printer, scanner etc as well - we got ours free from our local energy saving organisation when they came round to give us advice on saving energy. (I've tried to look for something similar on the net but can only find a v. dodgy pic of one being sold on ebay!)

laura - I was under the impression that water should be heated to over 60 degrees c to prevent legionaires disease

I pay very little for gas and electric.
For electric, I tend to turn things off at the main, so in my kitchen, the only thing that is plugged in at any time is the fridge. The cooker, microwave, washer etc are all switched off at the mains until needed. In the living room, everything is off at the mains when not in use. In a typical day when we are not at work, the only things on at the mains is the fridge and an alarm clock in the bedroom (only 'casue I'm too lazy to reset the time each night)

I don't think that anyone has mentioned refrigeration yet - but check the temp of your fridge and freezer, and turn them up a bit if you can do so.

Also, I have started washing my clothes at 30 instead of 40, and use the quick wash function on my machine. They still come out just as clean!!

LadyMuck - "check the temp of your fridge and freezer, and turn them up a bit if you can do so"

I'm assuming you mean down? So not as cold?

Furball - looking at the HSE website, it is water temperatures of 20-45 degrees that have a risk of Legionnaires. I might have interpreted that wrong though. I think when our water is heated, it is over 60 degrees, as it's burning hot, and we do that every other day or so, so I think we're OK.

Some good ideas here, thanks everyone. I will definitely investigate sorting out the plugs on the computer etc if nothing else.

Miaou - do you think it makes a significant difference to electricity usage washing at 30? If so, I might swap over. I'm also out of the habit of using the quick wash, so might change to that too.

laura, yes 30 makes quite a difference - heating water uses a fair bit of energy.

on turning the fridge up - ladymuck ment turning the temp setting up - which will reduce the amount of refridgeration.

I've seen those 'peripheral socket' extension blocks around in a few places - try a homebase type place, or even a very big tesco maybe.

master socket thing from homebase. I'm sure I've seen them for sub £20 too.

Laura, I meant turn them up so that they are not as cold. Turning down (say from 4 to 2) would make them colder and need more electricity. Our freezer had been set to -25 so we turned it up to -19 and it makes quite a bit of difference on the elec used.