How much electricity do you use?? (Am I mad)

Mike1983 · 9 Jan 2022 at 21:18

katie279 said:
Hmm very interesting - certainly got 5-6 switches, cameras, speakers etc - will check them!

Sonos is around a constant 5W per device alone….. even on standby….. overnight whilst you sleep. They’ve not even implemented power schedules yet despite demand.

Mike1983 · 9 Jan 2022 at 21:19

Sounds like you may have a server too? That’ll be another 55W or so constant drain?

katie279 · 9 Jan 2022 at 21:59

Yes, it does start to add up - will check total draw of my server cabinet tomorrow and will add smart sockets to the speakers. At the least I could switch them off automatically at night through Home Assistant...

Simon · 9 Jan 2022 at 23:53

theone8181 said:
Why are you leaving monitors on all the time then (assuming that's the bulk of that pc consumption)?

a very good question, the fact that this didnt even occur to be a huge waste of power probably explains why the consumption is so high. Probably leaves lights on in rooms not in etc etc

katie279 · 10 Jan 2022 at 06:44

Well if you can explain this oddity:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...ng-off-after-10-15-mins-when-in-use.18945394/

Then it'll resolve that!

Agree though, definitely bit sloppy!

jaybee · 10 Jan 2022 at 07:15

We use about £180 a month combined right now.

Elec is about £140 of it I recall.
Boys with pcs and consoles. 10+ screens in the house. Tumble dryer and washing machine and dishwasher always on. Server. Heating because she's always cold.

john_smith · 10 Jan 2022 at 07:24

December was a heavy month for us.

john_smith · 10 Jan 2022 at 07:35

@katie279 I would get some quotes from any renewable energy firms local to you. Some solar on your roof and a battery to store excess in will really save you some money. My 1100 units above, a large percentage, will have only cost me 5p a unit due to the consumption being over night via Octopus Go. As soon as it's sunny again i'll be able to do a majority of my consumption* "off grid"

*excluding charging my car

Sinbad2000 · 10 Jan 2022 at 08:08

john_smith said:
@katie279 I would get some quotes from any renewable energy firms local to you. Some solar on your roof and a battery to store excess in will really save you some money. My 1100 units above, a large percentage, will have only cost me 5p a unit due to the consumption being over night via Octopus Go. As soon as it's sunny again i'll be able to do a majority of my consumption* "off grid"

*excluding charging my car

As a South African who's just moved to the UK, I really cannot believe the amount of solar that's installed here. I thought there wasn't enough sun? Do you use different, more efficient panels here?

I had 10x 330W JA Solar polycrystalline panels back in SA. Daily generation varied from 0 on a very cloudy day, to 12kwh in winter, to 22kwh at the height of summer. A bit of cloud cover would drop my production from 3KW to under 300W.
How much do you folks with solar actually generate day to day, with how much installed panel?
I keep getting spammed by ads for "solar installation with no upfront charges". Are these scammy?

john_smith · 10 Jan 2022 at 08:36

I’ve got 16x250w, installed in 2012.

In 2020 they generated 4620 units.
Last year they generated 4390 units.

Sinbad2000 · 10 Jan 2022 at 09:04

john_smith said:
I’ve got 16x250w, installed in 2012.

In 2020 they generated 4620 units.
Last year they generated 4390 units.

Thanks, that's quite enlightening. More than I generated in SA, albeit with a lower power array. I'm really pleasantly surprised, now I will need to look into this!

jonchaz · 10 Jan 2022 at 09:39

Sinbad2000 said:
As a South African who's just moved to the UK, I really cannot believe the amount of solar that's installed here. I thought there wasn't enough sun? Do you use different, more efficient panels here?

It's not just cloudier, the UK's also further north of the equator than SA is south. I guess the other factor for break even timescales for solar panels is the relative cost of grid energy in the two countries, how does SA compare to the UK in that regard? Solar's not an option for me anyway due to the orientation of my house.

Regarding energy use my 1970s 150 sq m four bedroomed detached house has gas heating and hot water and three adults resident. We don't run an electric car but there are a couple of PCs on some of the time. On the last billing year it used around 6,500kwh of electricity and 21,500kwh of gas.

LuckyBenski · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:39

Sinbad2000 said:
As a South African who's just moved to the UK, I really cannot believe the amount of solar that's installed here. I thought there wasn't enough sun? Do you use different, more efficient panels here?

I had 10x 330W JA Solar polycrystalline panels back in SA. Daily generation varied from 0 on a very cloudy day, to 12kwh in winter, to 22kwh at the height of summer. A bit of cloud cover would drop my production from 3KW to under 300W.
How much do you folks with solar actually generate day to day, with how much installed panel?
I keep getting spammed by ads for "solar installation with no upfront charges". Are these scammy?

I don't know the panel rating as they're not mine, but we have 2 arrays with a 1kW inverter each. In summer each array can max out the inverter so tend to get 5+kWh daily easily. In winter much worse, I think they did between 1 and 2 kWh each yesterday. These just turned 10 years old and have about 11,000kWh on their log each.

Sinbad2000 · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:42

jonchaz said:
It's not just cloudier, the UK's also further north of the equator than SA is south. I guess the other factor for break even timescales for solar panels is the relative cost of grid energy in the two countries, how does SA compare to the UK in that regard? Solar's not an option for me anyway due to the orientation of my house.

Regarding energy use my 1970s 150 sq m four bedroomed detached house has gas heating and hot water and three adults resident. We don't run an electric car but there are a couple of PCs on some of the time. On the last billing year it used around 6,500kwh of electricity and 21,500kwh of gas.

SA is more expensive than the "old" rates, but considerably cheaper than what appears will be the new norm going forward... I was paying about 12p/kwh that side.

Jez · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:47

Sinbad2000 said:
SA is more expensive than the "old" rates, but considerably cheaper than what appears will be the new norm going forward... I was paying about 12p/kwh that side.

Might have gone up there too? I was paying around 10-11p/kwh only a couple of years ago here. Doubled since then :angry:

Sinbad2000 · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:51

Jez said:
Might have gone up there too? I was paying around 10-11p/kwh only a couple of years ago here. Doubled since then :angry:

Nope, nowhere near the same level of increase. It has gone up a lot over the past 10-15 years - at one stage it was more like about 3p/kwh. Seriously.

Jez · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:53

Sinbad2000 said:
at one stage it was more like about 3p/kwh. Seriously.

Wow...very nice. Such a shame that policy here has been so badly managed - its an absolute disgrace that power is this expensive.

Sinbad2000 · 10 Jan 2022 at 11:58

Jez said:
Wow...very nice. Such a shame that policy here has been so badly managed - its an absolute disgrace that power is this expensive.

I blame the greenies - but I fear we derail the thread!

Semple · 10 Jan 2022 at 14:33

Jez said:
Wow...very nice. Such a shame that policy here has been so badly managed - its an absolute disgrace that power is this expensive.

It is pretty embarrassing for one of the biggest economies in the world. The way the price is heading it'll almost be considered a luxury to say that you can afford electricity in your home.

dl8860 · 10 Jan 2022 at 15:47

robj20 said:
Tell her the recommended room temp for babies is 16-20c, i have mine 11 month old and 3 year old set to 17.5c overnight. With the youngest in one of those sleeping bags.

Even better, tell her my 18 month old's room gets as low as 11 degrees on a very cold night. We have a thermostatic oil heater in there two which I have programmed to come on at intervals. He's yet to die of hypothermia.

katie279 said:
Erm, yup pretty darn sure. It was a 6 bedroom when we bought it, but converted one room into a big dressing room....with 1200+ LED bulbs.... Lots of LED strips etc.
Has an outbuilding also. But yes, it's pretty large.

1200 LED bulbs? Did I read that right?

If they are 5W each (could be more) and you have them on for 1 hour per day, that's 6kW * 30h = 180kWh / mo = 40 quid a month just for those.