Combating energy prices

Did a walk around the house yesterday. I thought all our bulbs were LED. A couple aren't in low use rooms.

Will change them anyway.

I have a network switch running power wise via usb from a TiVo box. We don't use the TiVo much so will turn it off and find a longer cable for the switch and plug it in elsewhere.
 
I have the philips hue bulbs in 4 rooms altogether. using 5 builbs. I have the dimmer switch connected to them with a cover over the mains switch. The mains switch is always on. How much electric would this be using when my lights are not even on?
 
Deffy said:
I have the philips hue bulbs in 4 rooms altogether. using 5 builbs. I have the dimmer switch connected to them with a cover over the mains switch. The mains switch is always on. How much electric would this be using when my lights are not even on?
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It's not the switch using power but the bulbs being "off" while still receiving power. They need this to be able to listen for signals to turn on though.

It's not much - 0.3W per bulb or less.
 
LuckyBenski said:
It's not the switch using power but the bulbs being "off" while still receiving power. They need this to be able to listen for signals to turn on though.

It's not much - 0.3W per bulb or less.
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Assuming 0.2W per-bulb just for convenience, that's 8.76kWh over the year, or £4.56 at the new price cap rate.
 
Deffy said:
I have the philips hue bulbs in 4 rooms altogether. using 5 builbs. I have the dimmer switch connected to them with a cover over the mains switch. The mains switch is always on. How much electric would this be using when my lights are not even on?
Click to expand...
I've got a Hue LED strip light - I measured it when it was 'off' and didn't even register 0.1 Watts on my power meter in that standby mode.
 
I'm predicting electric blankets will be very hard to buy this Winter - will vanish from the shops like hair-clippers and webcams during the early days of Covid.
 
I just fixed my price with UW, they are offering electricity for 61.2p and gas for 14.1

Not bad given the cap is 52/15p respectively
 
Just seen something interesting in reddit, someone measured their washing machine power consumption at different temps. I'm actually very surprised at the difference between 30c and 40c.

I usually wash at 40c thinking it wouldn't cost a lot more than at 30c. But I think I'll be washing at 30c in future.

Source

For the past few days I've been doing measurements using a plug-in electricity meter with our Beko washing machine...

Total power used for the entire wash cycle:

At 60C: 1.087kWh

At 40C: 0.543kWh

At 30C: 0.251kWh


So in our case a 30C wash used about half the power of a 40C wash.
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You need some heat though depending what the item is.

Clothes - 30c is fine
Towels - should be 40c (a bit more thorough for a bit more nasties)
Bedding - should be 60c (kills dust mites)
 
andy_mk3 said:
I usually wash at 40c thinking it wouldn't cost a lot more than at 30c. But I think I'll be washing at 30c in future.
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If you are only refreshing clothes as opposed to washing 'dirty' clothes then modern detergents work well at 20c as well.

Measured almost every device in the house a good while ago, out of interest and to see how accurate power usage was vs claims. Some surprising results but the one that really stood out was my old router which was almost 34w constant.
 
andy_mk3 said:
Just seen something interesting in reddit, someone measured their washing machine power consumption at different temps. I'm actually very surprised at the difference between 30c and 40c.

I usually wash at 40c thinking it wouldn't cost a lot more than at 30c. But I think I'll be washing at 30c in future.

Source
Click to expand...
We do everything on quick wash at 20c, which takes 31 min, gets everything clean and I work outside doing various things that involve coming home dirty.

Even white stuff comes out clean, when my sister used to live with me she worked at a pub and the uniform was white shirt, 20c quick wash and it was white again.

Even towels get chucked in on 20c, bedding too. Been doing it for 6 years at this house, no problems at all. If it smells and looks clean, its clean.

If you're sheets have dust mites washing at 60c will make no difference, unless you chuck the mattresses and pillows in the washer too.
 
andy_mk3 said:
Just seen something interesting in reddit, someone measured their washing machine power consumption at different temps. I'm actually very surprised at the difference between 30c and 40c.

I usually wash at 40c thinking it wouldn't cost a lot more than at 30c. But I think I'll be washing at 30c in future.

Source
Click to expand...
Very useful, I'd be interested in the data during winter. Right now water coming in is probably 15+ degrees - wonder if the numbers close up when it's closer to 10 or below?

I've washed at 30 for the last few years but starting to feel my shirts get claggy armpits over time (years mind you) :(
 
andy_mk3 said:
Just seen something interesting in reddit, someone measured their washing machine power consumption at different temps. I'm actually very surprised at the difference between 30c and 40c.

I usually wash at 40c thinking it wouldn't cost a lot more than at 30c. But I think I'll be washing at 30c in future.

Source
Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense - the main energy consuming portion of a washing machine cycle is heating the water; which comes out the mains at about 15 degrees c in the summer.

So it's a delta T of 15 Vs 25 degrees C & energy consumption will be roughly proportional to that increase. The comparative difference will be less in the depths of winter when the mains water temp is lower.

I still wash at 40/60 as IME consistent low wash temps causes problems with the machine getting buildup etc.
 
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