Energy Saving

[GeoffF100]

I do not need to save energy cost, and the government subsidy does not make any significant investment worthwhile, but with the energy shortage (relative to demand) I have an extra reason for doing so.

I have turned the thermostat down to 17 degrees C. It will warm up 19 degree C upstairs when the heating comes on. I will also block out some draughts. It can get very windy where I live. Localised electric heating is a no no, except when the gas central heating fails. Foil behind the radiators?:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bil ... bills.html

£10 per year saving if you do not have insulated walls according to the energy trust. Less if you keep the house chilly. That does not appear to be worthwhile. I was planning to turn off the freezer if energy prices went through to roof, but it is no longer worthwhile. I am only using it for storing frozen berries, but fresh ones would cost much more. My AEG built in fridge costs about 80p per week, and my AEG built in freezer costs about £1.26 per week at the new rates, according to AEG's numbers.

There do not appear to be any sensible numbers for washing machines. The sticker refers to washing cottons on the Eco cycle. Is that any good? I mostly use the synthetics cycle. I can cut down my number of washes.

I have cut the amount of gas I need to cook using the advice here. Building a new more energy efficient computer is not worthwhile.

My total energy cost, including standing charges comes out at under £2,000. When I subtract the £400 government subsidy and £300 for pensioners that works out to less than £1,000.

[88V8]

Pan frying is very energy-efficient.
Also the pressure cooker.

Foil behind rads is worthwhile, if you are competent to remove the rad... remember to top up the inhibitor in the system as you will lose some.

Compriband expanding foam tape is superb for draught-proofing. It conforms to uneven gaps. https://www.dortechdirect.co.uk/compriband.html Carefully measure the gap to buy the right expansion.

I expect our energy cost to exceed £5,000 next year, gross of govt handouts.
Sigh...

V8

[GeoffF100]

Foil behind rads is worthwhile, if you are competent to remove the rad... remember to top up the inhibitor in the system as you will lose some.

£10 a year for uninsulated walls. Perhaps a pound or three for well insulated walls. You do not need to remove the radiator. See the video in the link.

[James]

I was planning to turn off the freezer if energy prices went through to roof, but it is no longer worthwhile. I am only using it for storing frozen berries, but fresh ones would cost much more. My AEG built in fridge costs about 80p per week, and my AEG built in freezer costs about £1.26 per week at the new rates, according to AEG's numbers.

Freezers and fridges work more efficiently when they are not cooling air, i.e., when they are full. If you only have a few frozen berries there, you should try and fill it up, even if it is just with empty plastic bottles filled with water. Once frozen, they will help keep the freezer at -16 or whatever setting you have. Otherwise, every time you open the door, you're letting out cold air that fills with warm air that needs re-cooling. The less space for air in there, the less this is necessary.

[88V8]

Foil behind rads is worthwhile, if you are competent to remove the rad... remember to top up the inhibitor in the system as you will lose some.

You do not need to remove the radiator. See the video in the link.

I suppose it will stay in place until the tape loses its stick.

I glued cork tiles behind some of the rads when I installed ch in our previous house, that was forty years ago...

[GeoffF100]

Foil behind rads is worthwhile, if you are competent to remove the rad... remember to top up the inhibitor in the system as you will lose some.

You do not need to remove the radiator. See the video in the link.

I suppose it will stay in place until the tape loses its stick.

I glued cork tiles behind some of the rads when I installed ch in our previous house, that was forty years ago...

A thin layer of cork would add very little insulation to brick, several inches of rock wool, insulation block, plasterboard and plaster. The stuff you get from a DIY store (which is supposed to be better than aluminium foil) reflects the heat back. Even so, a £10 per year saving in a semi with no insulation is not impressive.

[GeoffF100]

Freezers and fridges work more efficiently when they are not cooling air, i.e., when they are full. If you only have a few frozen berries there, you should try and fill it up, even if it is just with empty plastic bottles filled with water. Once frozen, they will help keep the freezer at -16 or whatever setting you have. Otherwise, every time you open the door, you're letting out cold air that fills with warm air that needs re-cooling. The less space for air in there, the less this is necessary.

That is a good point. (I would only be letting warmer air into the drawer that I open.) Regular defrosting is said to help too. If I have only a tiny amount in the freezer, I have to run that down to zero to defrost. According to AEG, the running cost is £1.26 per week. Probably rather less when the room is at 17 degrees C. That is not much to cover the extra cost of fresh.

[Mike4]

Freezers and fridges work more efficiently when they are not cooling air, i.e., when they are full. If you only have a few frozen berries there, you should try and fill it up, even if it is just with empty plastic bottles filled with water. Once frozen, they will help keep the freezer at -16 or whatever setting you have. Otherwise, every time you open the door, you're letting out cold air that fills with warm air that needs re-cooling. The less space for air in there, the less this is necessary.

That is a good point. (I would only be letting warmer air into the drawer that I open.) Regular defrosting is said to help too. If I have only a tiny amount in the freezer, I have to run that down to zero to defrost. According to AEG, the running cost is £1.26 per week. Probably rather less when the room is at 17 degrees C. That is not much to cover the extra cost of fresh.

I checked my fridge-freezer consumption the other day. Whist running it consumes 1Watt-Hour every 20 seconds. I'd estimate it runs maybe 30% of the time but I haven't actually sat and timed it on and off over, say an hour.

But let's imagine I am right about the 30%. This means my fridge-freezer actually consumes 1 Watt-Hour per minute, all the time on average.That's 60 Watt-hours per hour, or 1.44 kWh per day.

At say 35p per kWh that means my fridge-freezer costs 50p a day. £3.50 per week.

[doolally]

I was planning to turn off the freezer if energy prices went through to roof, but it is no longer worthwhile. I am only using it for storing frozen berries, but fresh ones would cost much more. My AEG built in fridge costs about 80p per week, and my AEG built in freezer costs about £1.26 per week at the new rates, according to AEG's numbers.

Freezers and fridges work more efficiently when they are not cooling air, i.e., when they are full. If you only have a few frozen berries there, you should try and fill it up, even if it is just with empty plastic bottles filled with water. Once frozen, they will help keep the freezer at -16 or whatever setting you have. Otherwise, every time you open the door, you're letting out cold air that fills with warm air that needs re-cooling. The less space for air in there, the less this is necessary.

But consider that the amount of energy to cool a cubic metre of air is quite small. But the initial amount of energy to cool a load of water-filled bottles is quite considerable in comparison. Whether that is beneficial is not clear, depends how often you open the freezer door
doolally

[DrFfybes]

Another thing with fridges and freezers is that whilst they use energy to cool the insides, they do heat up the room.

I have turned the thermostat down to 17 degrees C.

Your heating is on already?

We only heat the rooms we use, last year was still 2171 units (24 MwH) of gas and 4 MwH of leccy. The fish tank accounts for quite a bit of leccy in winter, but then again it is in the room we sit in so the heat is not lost.

It will be interesting to see how much the new boiler saves over the 1980s hideaway - anything over 10% would exceed my expectations. Walls are solid, and I do have a couple of rolls of radiator foil in the garage as I used to use them in the cars left out in the summer to keep the sun off the interior.

The payback for switching to LED lights is now a lot shorter, the ones we use most of the time are already converted, and the others are mainly CFL except for the outside lights, which are on sensors so not used a lot. Won't be replacing the fluorescents yet though, lumen/W is the same as for the LED replacements.

Paul

[GeoffF100]

Your heating is on already?

We only heat the rooms we use, last year was still 2171 units (24 MwH) of gas and 4 MwH of leccy. The fish tank accounts for quite a bit of leccy in winter, but then again it is in the room we sit in so the heat is not lost.

It will be interesting to see how much the new boiler saves over the 1980s hideaway - anything over 10% would exceed my expectations. Walls are solid, and I do have a couple of rolls of radiator foil in the garage as I used to use them in the cars left out in the summer to keep the sun off the interior.

The payback for switching to LED lights is now a lot shorter, the ones we use most of the time are already converted, and the others are mainly CFL except for the outside lights, which are on sensors so not used a lot. Won't be replacing the fluorescents yet though, lumen/W is the same as for the LED replacements.

No, my heating has not been running for months. I only hope the system still works. The thermostat was set to 18 degrees, but I turned it down to 17. The system is always on, but does not burn gas until the thermostat comes on. My house is open plan. The heat rises, and I only go downstairs to cook. When I lived in an old house, I heated just the rooms I was in, and the others got damp. I have a modern condenser boiler with the water temperature turned down. I am using only LED lights, and only in the room that I am in.

[BullDog]

Thanks go to whoever it was that recommended buying the £12 water tank insulation jacket from Screwfix. They're much more expensive elsewhere. I bought and fitted one when it was recommended few weeks ago. Only downside? The cupboard that Mrs BD relied on if washing was a bit less than fully dry is now not warm enough. That's life, I suppose

[monabri]

My total energy cost, including standing charges comes out at under £2,000. When I subtract the £400 government subsidy and £300 for pensioners that works out to less than £1,000.

Are my calculator batteries playing up?

[GeoffF100]

My total energy cost, including standing charges comes out at under £2,000. When I subtract the £400 government subsidy and £300 for pensioners that works out to less than £1,000.

Are my calculator batteries playing up?

Perhaps. Anything less than £1,700 becomes less than £1,000 after I have received £700. £1,700 is less than £2,000. In other words, I believe that my annual cost going forward will be less than £1,700 before the £700 is taken off. My spreadsheet shows £1,974 based on the last year's consumption, so I have to save £274, or about 14% to reach my target. I believe that is possible.

[monabri]

My total energy cost, including standing charges comes out at under £2,000. When I subtract the £400 government subsidy and £300 for pensioners that works out to less than £1,000.

Are my calculator batteries playing up?

Perhaps. Anything less than £1,700 becomes less than £1,000 after I have received £700. £1,700 is less than £2,000. In other words, I believe that my annual cost going forward will be less than £1,700 before the £700 is taken off. My spreadsheet shows £1,974 based on the last year's consumption, so I have to save £274, or about 14% to reach my target. I believe that is possible.

I hadn't picked up on the 14% saving target. However, that to one side, if you know the make and model of your appliances you might be able to glean some info from the user manual - often available as a free online download. For example, We have a Bosch washer dryer - here's the relevant energy consumption section.

source: https://www.devicemanuals.eu/wvd24460gb ... anual/798/

We generally use the "Easy-care 40'C" programme which, at 28p per kWh would cost ~10pence per wash.





We had a small under the counter freezer which was really a supplement to the upright fridge/freezer. I calculated that the running cost of this small freezer at 189 kW/h per year (manufacturers data) at 28p per kWh would be £53.

https://www.sust-it.net/power-consumpti ... o/UF584APW

When I sat down and worked out the energy costs for the majority of appliances. I found that the biggest energy usage was from heating the immersion tank (we are all electric). The standing charge was a reasonable chunk of change as well!

I'd echo that replacing lighting with LEDs is also a worthwhile move.

[GeoffF100]

My washing machine is a Bosch Maxx 6 built in WAB24161GB. I have not been able to find the energy consumption for individual cycles. The cycles on my old machine have longer durations. It takes forever and beeps loudly and persistently when the cycle ends. Very annoying, and there is no option to disable that.

[monabri]

My washing machine is a Bosch Maxx 6 built in WAB24161GB. I have not been able to find the energy consumption for individual cycles. The cycles on my old machine have longer durations. It takes forever and beeps loudly and persistently when the cycle ends. Very annoying, and there is no option to disable that.

Have you had a look on YouTube regarding deactivation of alarms/ beeps. For example ( not your model but it might be similar on your Bosch. It's not intuitive! ).

https://youtu.be/fkJ4VU6ldLk

Energy consumptions listed in the manual.

https://manuall.co.uk/bosch-wab24161gb-washing-machine/

[Mike4]

We had a small under the counter freezer which was really a supplement to the upright fridge/freezer. I calculated that the running cost of this small freezer at 189 kW/h per year (manufacturers data) at 28p per kWh would be £53.

Pedant alert.

You can't measure energy in kW/h. The unit is kWh, i.e. kW multiplied by hours. Not kW divided by hours.

kW/h would be a rate of change of power, something one rarely needs to measure.

Glad thats sorted out now, I bet you are!

[DrFfybes]

This just occurred to me.....

I have turned the thermostat down to 17 degrees C. It will warm up 19 degree C upstairs when the heating comes on

You can set your thermostat to a temperature you want the house at, and when it goes colder the heating comes on, and goes off again when it reaches the correct temperature? It doesn't need turning to 35 to get the house warm quicker, and then down to 12 again when the house is warm enough?

Wish we had one of those.

Paul

[monabri]

We had a small under the counter freezer which was really a supplement to the upright fridge/freezer. I calculated that the running cost of this small freezer at 189 kW/h per year (manufacturers data) at 28p per kWh would be £53.

Pedant alert.

You can't measure energy in kW/h. The unit is kWh, i.e. kW multiplied by hours. Not kW divided by hours.

kW/h would be a rate of change of power, something one rarely needs to measure.

Glad thats sorted out now, I bet you are!

I wasn't even consistent within the sentence! I meant 189kWh per year at 28p per kWh.