Tips For Using Less Electricity

[bednobs]

hi, our electricty bills are frankly huge for a three person household. Our electrical appliances consist of the following - :
freezer
router
cordless phone
tv
laptop
wall lights
spotlights
dab radios x 3
oven
kettle
toaster
washer/dryer
dishwasher
microwave
macerator
battery charger
lampsx 3
iron
dvd player
iopd docking station
water softner
fridge freezer
baby monitor
computer
printer
kindle/tablet/phone/toothbrush/nintendo chargers
hairdryer
humidifiers
can anyone give me recommendations of how to use less (apart from just turning things off), if anything i use is a huge consumer and so on

[jomifl]

All modern mains electrical appliances carry a plate detailing the max. power consumtion in kilowatts, just multiply that by the number of hours you use it and the cost per unit that you are paying when you use it and you will know the maximum running cost for the item. Do this for all your appliances and you may be surprised.

[factor-fiction]

Yo can get your meter checked, although I understand there is a charge if they find it is working properly.

I think a combination of these ideas and a conscious attempt to cut down usage- perhaps encouraged by weekly readings of your usage for the week- will help get it down by 10%.

It may also be that by switching supplier or swapping tariffs (do you pay by DD and have paperless billing) you can save another 5-10%.

Doing both should get it down to around £80 a month which doesn't seem too out of line to me- although if you have been running up this level of charges in summer I think there may still be a problem in winter when lights need to be on for longer

[bednobs]

thanks again everyone.
The builder - we have a digital type.
Tambo - we need the water softner (well, not "need" obviously, i could live without it but would pr3efer not to. Re humidifiers, we hardly ever use it at least not in the last six months, but i was just listing everything that was electric.
Can anyone move onto economy 7 as a tarrif?
I am wondering now if the large bills are a hangover from when i was off on maternity leave earlier this year, and was at home all the time.

[bednobs]

factor - we can't swap suppliers S we pay by DD and have a debt with them ATM

[Old_Geezer]

No expert, but can you not get your bank to give you a loan so you can clear your debt to the electric company and swop suppliers ? Or is that just wishful thinking ?

[Old_Geezer]

"i could live without it but would prefer not to."

Magic phrase. Sometimes one has to bite the bullet.

[factor-fiction]

Can't you use the overpayment of salary that you got to pay the debt and then offer to pay the employer in instalments?

Even if you can't change suppliers I'm just trying to put your £100 a month figure in context to see if your consumption seems high.

Your maternity leave could be a small factor but not a major one unless you had electric heaters on or electric fans on regularly.

You'd need to pay for an Economy 7 meter and for it to be cost effective (because although you pay a lower rate off peak you pay a surcharge at peak times) you need to use 40% of your electricity at off peak times (typically midnight- 8am but maybe 11pm-7am in winter). This requires a lot of discipline- setting washers/dishwasher up to come on early, use tumble drier early, do all your recharging over breakfast, etc

[belrec]

May sound a bit simplistic but have you changed your light bulbs to energy effiecient ones? that actually makes a huge difference especailly if you leave lights on (for whatever reason) :-)

We pay about £60 per month with 2 adults 2 kids and pretty much all the same bits as you, no humidifiers tho.

[factor-fiction]

I keep 4 weekly records on a spreadsheet of my consumption going back over 2 years (sad, I know, but it really helped us get a grip of our energy bills and allows better comparisons when switching).
Our electricity bill (4 bedroomed house , 2-3 people, based on cheapest deal a year ago) over the last year has averaged £62 a month. I do have ahabit of doing ironing before 7am though and turning lights/chargers off.

(We struggle with gas costs though- can't keep below £700 a year.)

So yours does seem high at £100 a month. I suggest making a conscious effort to turn things off and taking regular meter readings will lead to savings of 10%, provided your other half is on board too.

[bednobs]

once more, thanks everyone. FF although it's tempting to pay off debts with the overpayment, i'll be stuffed if they ask for it back and say no to installments, so would prefer not to :)
I note all your suggestions and will give the conscious effort thing a go

[EDDIE51]

You say washer/dryer does that mean you have a combined washing machine and dryer? If so they are hideously inefficient and vey wasteful of power. Better to get separate ones. Get a stand alone spin dryer they will get far more water out of the clothes than the spin cycle in the washing machine. Put the washing in the spin dryer and give it a good long spin before using the tumble dryer. A good spin dryer will get 80% or more of the water out of the washing, some stuff will come out almost dry enough to iron and a spin dryer uses only 10% of the power a tumble dryer uses.

[boxtops]

I find the tumble dryer thing is a myth. I use mine 3 times a week on average, and now we have the smart meter, it might go into orange if another appliance is on, but it never goes into red when I'm using the tumber, to indicate high usage.

[jomifl]

These are the only ones that matter, the others are either too small or not on long enough to matter.
freezer
tv
wall lights
spotlights
oven
washer/dryer
lampsx 3
fridge freezer
computer
humidifiers (dehumidifiers?)

[EDDIE51]

What is the wattage of your dryer ? Most of them are 2.5 to 3.5 kilowatts, a kilowatt is 1.000 watts so 2,500 to 3,500 watts.
That is a lot of power no matter what your smart meter says. A spin dryer will get out 50 to 80% more water than the spin cycle of the washing machine and uses only 300 watts or so ( less than 10% of the power of most tumble dryers)

[bednobs]

hiya methyl - we have a combi

[4getmenot]

charge mobile phone at work

[jomifl]

The cost of charging a phone is miniscule, I doubt it costs £1 per year.

[anneasquith]

out of interest bed, have your bills increased much since you had the baby ?