Keeping the electric bills down

[dglcomp]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

If reducing the hot water temperature, you need it to be hot enough to kill legionellum.

David

Yes, I believe minimum 55°C for a combi and 60°C for stored hot water, legionella is quite nasty so not something to take lightly.

Of course what some people forget about when thy hark on about air fryers is capacity, you could do a few things at once in a regular oven. Imagine trying to do a roast in an air fryer (glorified fan heater/hairdryer really), whereas we have 3 shelves for our oven and all shelves not only are the same temperature but supposedly it's designed so flavours don't mix.

[dsergeant]

You first need to find out your normal consumption, and with a smart meter it is a lot easier these days. I leave the little kitchen box in the cupboard and look at my consumption on the utility company's website. What I know:
(central heating and hot water is gas so I am only talking about electric).

Standby consumption during the night around 40W, during the day 70W. This includes this main computer, recently upgraded to SSD, various walwarts, the router etc which are on all the time.

Daily total consumption 5kWH or less, single occupier.

When I was away for a few days I found my daily consumption had dropped to 1.5kWh, mainly the fridge/freezer.

Using the cooker, oven and a couple of rings, to cook lunch uses around 1kWh. I could tell those days when I used the grill in the evening for a fry up as the consumption was a little higher those days.

A lot of talk about kettles, yes it takes 3kW when used but it only takes a couple of minutes to boil even when full so in the overall scheme it is irrelevant. Just filling it for a single cuppa is pointless, you are NOT saving.

I had worked out ages ago that I couldn't really do anything more than I have already done. House double glazed and cavity walled. 19C for thermostat is quite warm enough. Consumption has been around 5kWH for electric for many years.

Forget about turning that hifi off, that is not what uses electric. If you use 20kWH/day in your home try and work out why that is, it should be much lower. And if you can insist on variable direct debit so your bills are based on real usage and not the fictional pie in the sky estimated stuff.

Oh and if you have an electric car you can ignore absolutely everything else....

I had better leave it there as this is of course way off topic for this forum.

Dave

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Cruisin Marine

You could always go down the pub! If £4-5 quid a pint is ok

How much?! Ahh, you're London. £3 or so here in the midlands.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by dsergeant

A lot of talk about kettles, yes it takes 3kW when used but it only takes a couple of minutes to boil even when full so in the overall scheme it is irrelevant. Just filling it for a single cuppa is pointless, you are NOT saving.


Dave

Thats' simply not true. Heating 'half a kettle' to gradually lose it's temperature is a waste of energy. The fact that heating more than a cup of water "only takes a couple of minutes" doesn't prove otherwise as heating up a cupful will take less time and hence use less energy - simple maths. Only heat the amount of water that you need to at any point in time. Same reason why a combi boiler (heats up water as needed) is more energy efficient over a hot water tank that gradually goes cold. Ok, sometimes it's not that simple because someone may have a 'super-insulated' hot water tank, but as a general principle, heating hot water that's not needed there and then is not efficient. Losses.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

If reducing the hot water temperature, you need it to be hot enough to kill legionellum.

David

Surely that's in the case of it being supplied from a standing hot water tank? With a combi boiler isn't your 'hot' water is just as pure as when it's cold, or am I missing something?

[Cobaltblue]

Important as Energy bills are for all of us, this thread is not really a topic for this forum outside of whether savings can be made through our hobby.

As it's drifting further its time to close.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Cheers

Mike T