Combating energy prices

andy_mk3 said:
What is everyone’s background usage? Mine hovers around 280-320w. Most of that is my unraid server, another box running pfsense, Poe cameras and such. I don’t think I could really reduce that by much without turning them off completely which I can’t.

We average about 10-12kwh a day overall though which I don’t think is terrible for a family of 3.
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For me its 166w averaged over several days while we were on holiday. That would include an unraid server (3800x, 8x 4TB drives, 2TB nvme, 4x 16GB RAM), ESXI server (can't remember specs, its a hex core i5, 32GB RAM), router/wifi, g.fast modem, standby devices like TV, amp, oven, microwave, about 4 Echos, 3 fire alarms, Hive unit, and running a fridge/freezer. We tend to use 7-8kwh a day as 2 adults and one small child.
 
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Gammawolf said:
For me its 166w averaged over several days while we were on holiday. That would include an unraid server (3800x, 8x 4TB drives, 2TB nvme, 4x 16GB RAM), ESXI server (can't remember specs, its a hex core i5, 32GB RAM), router/wifi, g.fast modem, standby devices like TV, amp, oven, microwave, about 4 Echos, 3 fire alarms, Hive unit, and running a fridge/freezer. We tend to use 7-8kwh a day as 2 adults and one small child.
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Interesting that. Just lookaed and the UPS for my unraid server shows around 80w with disks spun down (also powering a Unifi NVR and a poe switch), my pfsense UPS shows around 60w (also powers a poe switch, rasberry pi, helium miner and bits). So there's a fair amount of power being used elsewhere unless my UPS' are proving to be extremely inefficient.
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
I'm pretty happy with our energy reduction. I need to find more bills (hence the gaps) and obviously gas isn't really comparable back to last winter versus now, but I'm happy with the trend.

Recently I found another energy saving strategy in the week - our dishwasher 'eco' mode is only eco in terms of water used, the 'mini' setting uses less electricity (more water, but that's cheap).
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I've been keep similar stats for the last several years, I did a round of energy stuff in May 2021 but also more aggressively in August this year which is saved an additonal 33%, should be able to sustain just above 200kWh a month with no real sacrifice in what we do. Just goes to show that amount of potential savings when you reassess everything in the home!

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andy_mk3 said:
Sky Q boxes use a fair chunk in standby. It all adds up.

We use our ninja foodi for pretty much everything for cooking as it uses so much less energy than a full sized oven.
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I'm still not convinced ninjas/ air driers are worth it (for a family), they use a bit less leccy but the upfront coat is massive, I reckon is have to cook 1,000 meals to break even, which as I don't use the oven that often would takes years (if ever) to pay back.

I know they sky q box uses a bit when I had mine, but most other stuff isn't worth turning off imo. Ps5/cbox download updates and update overnight. Rather they do that then cut into gaming time :cry: .
 
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theone8181 said:
I'm still not convinced ninjas/ air driers are worth it (for a family), they use a bit less leccy but the upfront coat is massive, I reckon is have to cook 1,000 meals to break even, which as I don't use the oven that often would takes years (if ever) to pay back.

I know they sky q box uses a bit when I had mine, but most other stuff isn't worth turning off imo. Ps5/cbox download updates and update overnight. Rather they do that then cut into gaming time :cry: .
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Have barely used my consoles recently tbh. With the tower of sockets next to them with individual switches it makes more sense for me to leave them off. That may change when some decent games come out e.g. GoW.
 
theone8181 said:
I'm still not convinced ninjas/ air driers are worth it (for a family), they use a bit less leccy but the upfront coat is massive, I reckon is have to cook 1,000 meals to break even, which as I don't use the oven that often would takes years (if ever) to pay back.

I know they sky q box uses a bit when I had mine, but most other stuff isn't worth turning off imo. Ps5/cbox download updates and update overnight. Rather they do that then cut into gaming time :cry: .
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I certainly wouldn't buy one purely for the reason of saving electric. They're a great thing to have in the kitchen and the energy saving is just a bonus.
 
So, I looked into the energy usage of my two UPS's. It's not really something I had given any thought about until now. First UPS is an APC 1500va unit, had it for quite a while and while it used to run a ton of rackmount gear, it's now very overspecced for the job it's doing now and the lack of efficiency at low load is quite shocking. So at around 115w of load it was using around 165w from the wall :eek:. Second unit is an APC Pro 1200, a little more modern but still complete overkill really, this one at 68w load was drawing 97w. So in total I'm wasting around 80w of power through UPS losses, some 85p a day at todays prices.

Following that I have swapped the 1200VA unit for a spare 400VA unit, then swapped the 1500VA unit with the 1200VA unit for some more efficiency, making the least efficient 1500VA unit now redundant. I do intend to replace the 1200VA unit with a much smaller one eventually.

I also downgraded my pfSense box from an i5-7500 back down to the original Pentium G4400 due to no longer running my camera NVR on that box so no longer needing the CPU power, so that should drop power consumption too. Through the CPU and UPS change I've dropped close to 50w of power draw from the wall.

Silly things I have overlooked for far too long that's for sure.
 
My background use from today, battery runs the house during peak time.
One intel NUC on 24/7, the regular spikes on the chart are the fridge/freezer turning on/off.

Battery is off during the GO faster off-peak rate (9.30pm-2.30am)

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andy_mk3 said:
So, I looked into the energy usage of my two UPS's. It's not really something I had given any thought about until now. First UPS is an APC 1500va unit, had it for quite a while and while it used to run a ton of rackmount gear, it's now very overspecced for the job it's doing now and the lack of efficiency at low load is quite shocking. So at around 115w of load it was using around 165w from the wall :eek:. Second unit is an APC Pro 1200, a little more modern but still complete overkill really, this one at 68w load was drawing 97w. So in total I'm wasting around 80w of power through UPS losses, some 85p a day at todays prices.

Following that I have swapped the 1200VA unit for a spare 400VA unit, then swapped the 1500VA unit with the 1200VA unit for some more efficiency, making the least efficient 1500VA unit now redundant. I do intend to replace the 1200VA unit with a much smaller one eventually.

I also downgraded my pfSense box from an i5-7500 back down to the original Pentium G4400 due to no longer running my camera NVR on that box so no longer needing the CPU power, so that should drop power consumption too. Through the CPU and UPS change I've dropped close to 50w of power draw from the wall.

Silly things I have overlooked for far too long that's for sure.
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Good to hear you found out where some of that draw was going to! Just curious as to why they all aren't on the 1200 UPS? I don't have any UPS so that plus probably my 2 machines using a bit less than yours probably accounts for most of the difference (my unraid is about 65w with disks spun down, my esxi machine is 9 or 10w optiplex when "idling")
 
Gammawolf said:
Good to hear you found out where some of that draw was going to! Just curious as to why they all aren't on the 1200 UPS? I don't have any UPS so that plus probably my 2 machines using a bit less than yours probably accounts for most of the difference (my unraid is about 65w with disks spun down, my esxi machine is 9 or 10w optiplex when "idling")
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They’re in different locations, one being in the airing cupboard and the other being in a cabin, otherwise I would combine them haha.

I’d say my unraid box is probably around 65w spun down, the rest being a UniFi nvr recording and an 8 port Poe switch with cameras and a wireless ap etc.

I did measure my pfsense box on its own and it idles around 11w with the G4400, quite impressive really!
 
Dirk Diggler said:
You don't have a fridge or freezer in the house?
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I have a fridge freezer which kicks in now and then. Oddly it seems to have two different loads, around 100W and 200W. They appear now and then. I have not timed it over 24 hours so I can't tell you what it's average consumption is. It doesn't make any difference, it's new so I am not replacing it! (Maybe I don't want to know? :D)
 
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after earlier post I'd checked for parents 0.4W https://www.sky.com/help/articles/energy-consumption-of-sky-q-products
also https://www.sky.com/help/articles/u... standby settings,select the setting you want.

Sky Q 1TB Box (ES130)

Passive Standby: 0.4 W

Active Standby: 17.7 W

On: 20.1 W

TEC: 140 kWh/year

Sky Q 2TB Box (ES240)

Passive Standby: 0.4 W

Active Standby: 20.7 W

On: 29.0 W

TEC: 173 kWh/year

Sky Q Mini Box (EM150)

Passive Standby: 0.4 W

Active Standby: 9.5 W

On: 10.1 W

TEC: 74.5 kWh/year

Sky Q Booster (EE120)

Networked Standby: 6.7 W
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DampCat said:
The guy on Reddit who measured everything in his house found his SkyQ box added up to almost £90/year. I'll try and find it.

Edit: forgive me that was for his 3 boxes. Here's the link:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com www.reddit.com
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This explains why my base line energy is so low considering the stuff I have on all the time.

No sky boxes or anything like that. Of the double digit per year devices I only have a router (obviously)

Edit
And microwave. But leaving that on. There's enough stuff in microwave I don't want to be turning it on and off as it does damage some electronics.
 
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