Phantom Power and saving money

[Pete]

So, having recieved my electricity monitoring doobah from Scottish Hyrdro

I've been trying to find all the little things in my flat that use daft amounts of power whilst sitting doing sod all.

I've noticed how low the consumption of the computer is (about 120w inc monitor) however the fact that the microwave sits and guzzles ten watts whilst just sitting displaying a clock was probably the biggest shock. Off that goes at the plug.

Today I'm trying to discover exactly how much power my immersion uses. I blame it, and it alone, for my high bills.

So what exciting ways are you dealing with the *credit crunch*?

[marksi]

I've had an energy meter for a while now, and my quarterly electricity bill has been reduced a fair bit.

I found that the PC and peripherals, with the PC turned off but with other bits and pieces in standby, was consuming 1p per hour. That's about £80 over a year. So all that stuff is now turned off at the plug when not in use. I had a halogen uplighter in the living room. That was using a ridiculous 150w, so has been replaced with a new one from Ikea, using 3x7w bulbs. All other lights in the house are energy efficient.

The thermostat on the immersion heater was broken and stayed on, effectively boiling the tank if you left it on too long. A new thermostat cost £5. If you can wire a plug you can replace the thermostat on an immersion heater, no plumbing is required. In the past I used the oil boiler for the central heating to just heat water in the summer, but with the price of oil I'm now using the immersion heater, which is set to the temperature I would use water at in the shower. So my next electricity bill will be dearer, but I reckon it's far cheaper than using the boiler. The oil tank is now nearly full, having got a delivery last week which should see me through most if not all of the winter. I'll be using coal and logs more on the open fire this winter, need to buy a new fireguard that fits.

Hadn't considered the microwave clock, will have to turn that off later to see what effect it has. The VCR which I hadn't used for a very long time but which was sitting powered up under the TV, has been disconnected and consigned to the roofspace.

I've got thermostatic valves on all the radiators (except one, I'm told you should always leave one with no thermostatic valve so that the pump can complete a circuit somewhere). I also super-insulated the roofspace a few months ago and now have 300mm of recycled glass fibre across the whole loft.

I'm thinking about a wind turbine on the gable end of the house. Living on a hill by the coast it should be productive nearly all the time, though it looks like it would still take a long time to get your money back. That's why I discounted the idea of solar panels earlier in the year.

When I can I use the motorbike for getting to work; this is saving me a fortune in petrol.

[Gavin Scott]

I have 2 x 150w lamps in my livingroom area on a dimmer. They're never at more than 25% (and in fact one of them has needed replaced for ages). The rest of my lighting is hidden from direct view and wash the walls and above cabinets onto the ceiling. Those are all made up of LED colour changers and a handful of 11w CFL "Palm Lights".

I do leave oodles of equipment on standby though. My VCR gets used maybe once a week but sits on the whole time.

I need to reduce my consumption though as my quarterly was £210 more than last year.

Are those meters free? Could I ask my landlady to send for one for me?

[Pete]

I got the meter for free by changing to"better plan" with hydro (I think e.on and some others have similar plans) which is the same cost per unit but they give you credits for saving money. If I save 10% year on year they give me £15, 20% = £25 (this is all but guaranteed due to them fecking up the original dates on my bills). My last quarter was £240, although as I'm about to say, I'm all electric

annoyingly, many of these options are unavailable to me what with me being in a rented flat and having night storage heaters *urgh*. Luckily, despite only having crappy single glazing sash windows the place seems to hold its heat very well so the storage heaters aren't needed aside from in January.

The only non-energy efficient lights in the flat are now the halogens in the kitchen (five 240v/50w jobs in the ceiling). I found these LED halogens at B&Q which were 1w, however they resemble moonlight and seem to have no spread, they just shine downwards dimly, so I'm now wondering what to replace them with. Currently I've just got two bulbs fitted as I had two blown and dropped another one whilst playing with the new things.

Any suggestions on bulbs for my kitchen that are cheap, efficient and work are welcome.

[marksi]

Gavin, stick a meter across your 150w halogens; some dimmers manage the wonderful feat of still managing to draw almost the full 150w, even when the lamp is dimmed low. My last quarterly electricity bill was £54 (though as I said, that didn't include any water heating, which the next one will.)

You can get the OWL Energy Meter for about £40, B&Q were doing them for £30.

Hyma, I have 5x50w halogen spots in the kitchen, but I never use them. I installed some under counter fluorescents and these are more than bright enough to work and cook with (plus they look nicer). I also put some on top of the cupboards so they diffuse light on the ceiling, though in practice rarely use them.

[Pete]

well you see I've got two under counter fluros however they're only on one wall, and my kitchen has very little natural light (it has a window into the hall, but they're both in the middle of the flat and therefore only get what comes in from the open doors to the other rooms.

This also means, with the room being dark, we tend to leave the halogens on a lot just because me and my flatmate flit in and out of the kitchen a lot, especially in the evening.

[Gavin Scott]

The only non-energy efficient lights in the flat are now the halogens in the kitchen (five 240v/50w jobs in the ceiling). I found these LED halogens at B&Q which were 1w, however they resemble moonlight and seem to have no spread, they just shine downwards dimly, so I'm now wondering what to replace them with. Currently I've just got two bulbs fitted as I had two blown and dropped another one whilst playing with the new things.

Any suggestions on bulbs for my kitchen that are cheap, efficient and work are welcome.

Whatever you do don't buy those GU10 LED "cluster lamps" (as per your illustration). They are garbage, and have a distinct flicker, terrible colour rendering and no visible output to speak of. Absolute rubbish.

Have a look at the GU10 CFL lamps on http://www.megamanuk.com/. Those are the ones I use and they are brilliant. Phenomenal light output, balanced colour temperature so they have a pleasant warm glow (a bit like the ones you are replacing), and they last and last. I see they are doing dimmable ones now - although I would stick with the non-dims.

This page shows you the ones I'm talking about - and if you are concerned about the overall length of the lamp body, the smaller 7w ones would be the ones for you:

http://www.megamanuk.com/products/product.php?sid=2

You shouldn't be looking at more than £5-7 per lamp. Seems a lot but they last for years.

They should be available from good lighting retailers - maybe try John Lewis.

Avoid B&Q products at all costs. Shit quality and massively overpriced.

[Pete]

Whatever you do don't buy those GU10 LED "cluster lamps" (as per your illustration). They are garbage, and have a distinct flicker, terrible colour rendering and no visible output to speak of. Absolute rubbish.

Sadly however I did buy them out of interest they are utter shit, I think i'll return them to B&Q and point out how shit they actually are (as in, tell them they didn't work).

Have a look at the GU10 CFL lamps on http://www.megamanuk.com/. Those are the ones I use and they are brilliant. Phenomenal light output, balanced colour temperature so they have a pleasant warm glow (a bit like the ones you are replacing), and they last and last. I see they are doing dimmable ones now - although I would stick with the non-dims.

very interesting. will see if i can find them at john lewis.

[Gavin Scott]

You'll be lucky to get anywhere with B&Q with regard to a refund - although you could use the old, "not fit for purpose" line and tell them that you unsuccessfully used them to illuminate your staircase.

Limp a bit and threaten a small claims court case unless you get your money back.

[Pete]

well I see john lewis have one on their website
http://www.johnlewis.com/230439663/Product.aspx

but it looks a lot longer than the ones on the other website. I'll have a think about it, I'll be popping to JL in Edinburgh in a few weeks anyhow so I'll take a gander then

[Gavin Scott]

well I see john lewis have one on their website
http://www.johnlewis.com/230439663/Product.aspx

but it looks a lot longer than the ones on the other website. I'll have a think about it, I'll be popping to JL in Edinburgh in a few weeks anyhow so I'll take a gander then

Well when you do you can bloomin well give me a call and we can have a coffee and croisant at Habana, opposite JL.

Those Phillips lamps in Lewis' only run 8,000 hours as opposed to 15,000 hours for the Megaman brand. I'll bring one of my spares along and you can do a side-by-side comparison in the style of "Which?".