Energy Prices (Strictly NO referrals!)

doesitmatter said:
I’m with British Gas with a smart meter and on their standard variable. I’m sat here looking at the smart meter and it says I’m using 0.254kw or 7p an hour for electricity. Does that sound right? Currently sat here with no tv on or lights on. It seems this is my base usage from standby usage plus fridge etc. I’m trying to gauge whether this is normal? I have four bed house with lots of smart tech, whole house uses Philips Hue, those bulbs are always ‘on’.
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No that's not normal 254W is huge amount for standby power.

My house uses 7W with nothing on and that is mainly the router.

Yes, the fridge/freezer compressor comes on periodically and it uses maybe 50W for an hour or two.
 
My base load is around 100watts. Just got that down from over 200watts. You should invest in a plug in meter and go round your devices and see how much things are using I found the main base draw was lots of small usage devices that add up.

I now hard shut everything off in my study when not using it with an automatic power block that knocked 25-30watts off. I put my multi room amps on a timer so they are off overnight 30-40watts cut, auto shutdown my NAS overnight that took another 50 ish off. All adds up will be in the hundreds saved over the year at the current cap. I’ve not stopped using anything just made small changes to when/how devices are powered off.

Now the main base usage is the fridge/freezer I’ve got a plug in meter that averages the usage over 24 hours. The fridge/freezer is using just under 2kwh a day (way more than the energy rating suggests) so approx £15 a month at the current cap.

I can’t go lower easily as network switches/router/APs/ONT/smart bulbs/plugs are always on and would start to get annoying trying to shut them down/unplug them when not in use.
 
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doesitmatter said:
I just wanted to make sure it didn’t sound crazy. That’s £1.68 a day, £51.10 a month or £613.20 a year. Tempted just to turn the fuse board off at night!
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The question is what is plugged in.

I am one of those who doesnt believe in the notion we can assume every meter is accurate. But the information you have provided is way too vague.

I am still to investigate my own usage, but its absolutely key my IHD starts working as I cant sit and look at my meter directly whilst in my flat.

For reference though my idle usage based on 30 min readings with both PCs off, is about 0.240KwH which I think seems high, however thats not with everything unplugged.

I noticed on the 30 min readings oven's use a crap ton of electric, 20 mins usage on oven, was 0.8KwH by itself. But like yourself I really want to investigate whats going on in what I consider to be idle periods. Chargers plugged in, consoles on standby etc. Already discovered my Series S, uses 20w in both energy saver and always on mode, there is no difference between the two, so now I unplug it.
 
chrcoluk said:
The question is what is plugged in.

I am one of those who doesnt believe in the notion we can assume every meter is accurate. But the information you have provided is way too vague.

I am still to investigate my own usage, but its absolutely key my IHD starts working as I cant sit and look at my meter directly whilst in my flat.

For reference though my idle usage based on 30 min readings with both PCs off, is about 0.240KwH which I think seems high, however thats not with everything unplugged.

I noticed on the 30 min readings oven's use a crap ton of electric, 20 mins usage on oven, was 0.8KwH by itself. But like yourself I really want to investigate whats going on in what I consider to be idle periods. Chargers plugged in, consoles on standby etc. Already discovered my Series S, uses 20w in both energy saver and always on mode, there is no difference between the two, so now I unplug it.
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I just turned everything off apart from my hob circuit, that has a single power plug to connect the smart meter to, usage dropped to zero, so I assume it is working. I’ve started turning circuits back on and I’m resting at 160watts. I’m not sure why it’s down from 240 watts to 160 watts but I’ll take it. Im trying to figure out how much Philips Hue is using in standby, 85 bulbs, 2 hubs, plenty of sensors and switches etc. Apart from Hue I’m running a NAS, network switch, router, 3 Wi-Fi network boosters, printer all 24/7.
 
chrcoluk said:
I noticed on the 30 min readings oven's use a crap ton of electric, 20 mins usage on oven, was 0.8KwH by itself. But like yourself I really want to investigate whats going on in what I consider to be idle periods. Chargers plugged in, consoles on standby etc. Already discovered my Series S, uses 20w in both energy saver and always on mode, there is no difference between the two, so now I unplug it.
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Anything that heats uses loads of electric, use an air fryer instead of an oven when cooking small amounts, they don't need time to heat up, cook food in half the time and because they are smaller use much less power. Chips go from 30mins of having the oven on to only 10-15mins of using the air fryer.

doesitmatter said:
I just turned everything off apart from my hob circuit, that has a single power plug to connect the smart meter to, usage dropped to zero, so I assume it is working. I’ve started turning circuits back on and I’m resting at 160watts. I’m not sure why it’s down from 240 watts to 160 watts but I’ll take it. Im trying to figure out how much Philips Hue is using in standby, 85 bulbs, 2 hubs, plenty of sensors and switches etc. Apart from Hue I’m running a NAS, network switch, router, 3 Wi-Fi network boosters, printer all 24/7.
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85 bulbs is that a joke? Buckingham palace probably doesn't use that much.
 
doesitmatter said:
The second quote doesn’t contradict the first, I’m not sure what’s so funny? I am trying to figure out what a normal baseline use is.
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It's funny because you're asking if your power use is normal when you're running as much networking equipment as a datacentre, and being concerned about standby use when you have more bulbs than Blackpool illuminations installed seems to be pointless.
 
For 85 Hue bulbs plus hubs, your probably looking at 40-50w right there just idled.

Each bulb supposedly draws about 0.4w when ‘off’ according to anand tech.

85 bulbs is 34w plus the hub (or two?)
 
Energize said:
It's funny because you're asking if your power use is normal when you're running as much networking equipment as a datacentre, and being concerned about standby use when you have more bulbs than Blackpool illuminations installed seems to be pointless.
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We’re on a tech forum, I doubt my set up is anything unusual, it certainly does not compare to a datacentre. I appreciate I have a lot of hue bulbs, however as the post below yours states, it’s unlikely to use more than 35-40w. Anyway, I’ll leave it there, other users have been helpful in answering.
 
doesitmatter said:
We’re on a tech forum, I doubt my set up is anything unusual, it certainly does not compare to a datacentre. I appreciate I have a lot of hue bulbs, however as the post below yours states, it’s unlikely to use more than 35-40w. Anyway, I’ll leave it there, other users have been helpful in answering.
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It's totally reasonable. I have a mesh WiFi network, a couple of switches, Poe CCTV, esxi server and a media server. More than an average family probably needw but nothing extravagant. It all sits on a set of robust shelves out of the way. Could I live without it? Yes, but I've got used to having it and it's useful to have central storage to save documents and media.
 
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