Energy consumption reduction opinions sought.

JDT2Q · 2009-02-04T00:13:17+00:00

Hi group,Today I completed the monthly on line meter readings submission for my energy supplier and was presented with a bill for about £450 for the past quarter.I was amassed.The bill is paid by monthly direct debit and it just about flatted the accumulated credit in our account since our last bill.No doubt the supplier will increase my approx £110 per month direct debit as we are not out of the winter period yet.The bill is for both gas and electricity.We switched suppliers a couple of years ago using Uswitch so we are not with the historical suppliers for the area.I will be comparing prices again soon once the playing field is level.Our house is a semi dormer bungalow ( not a very big one ) in the North West.We have cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, double glazing, combi boiler ( 2 yrs old ), and programmable room stat.Most of our light fittings are CFL's.We have a dishwasher, tumble drier and electric oven with gas hob.It's difficult to see how we could economise more than we do on the high consumption appliances - especially gas.I am starting to look at the electrical consumption of low consumption items.For example, the door bell transformer is lowish consumption but powered up 24/7/365 and it is an old style one and not a Switched Mode Power Supply.I know from my electronic engineering training that the 'old style' transformers are relatively inefficient compared to SMPS - iron losses and such.This is very much a 'started today' project but on basic calculations if the bell transformer consumed 100mA ( not yet measured it so I may be way out ) and it's powered up 8736 hrs per year ( all year ) and my supplier charges 9p per kilowatt hour ( excl VAT ) then it's costing us £18.86 per year just for the bell transformer.Our alarm system also has a 'traditional' PSU and is powered up all year.That is likely to consume more than the bell transformer as equipment IS being powered 24/7 so, on assumed consumption figures ( mA ), we are now up to more than...

Feb 04, 2009 161 Replies

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Terry Fields 17 years ago

In the last cold snap I tired an experiment, in that I put a 6" desk fan running at its lowest speed under the 800 x 600 double radiator in the lounge, in an open-plan sixties design house.

The result was astonishing. In ten minutes, the thermometer at the other end of the lounge showed an increase of 1 degC (21.5 to

22.5degC), the temperature felt far more even across the lounge, and the TRV ran the system exactly: a setting of '4' gives the calibrated 21 degC, '5' gives 24 degC, and the interpolation is also correct: '4.5' gives 22.5 degC.

The TRV is out of the direct air stream, and the lounge is noticeably more comfortable (but not necessarily warmer).

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Man at B&Q 17 years ago

That's effectively how you cook them in the microwave if you do it properly. No more than a tablespoon or two of water.

MBQ

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