Reduce your electricity bill

[Mick]

I thought I would kick off a practical list of ways we can all reduce our electricity bills

• Change your lights to LED, led lighting is fast becoming the best way to reduce your electricity bill as the bulbs last up to 20 times longer than halogen, and having a 80-90 percent energy saving on standard halogens!
• Make sure when upgrading or changing appliances you choose A rated appliances.
• Something that I notice more often, is that people do not know what the immersion switch/fuse is for, you should switch off the immersion at all times (unless you have no gas), immersion heaters are killer electricity hogs.
• Use lamps if you do not need all your lights on.
• Switch of TVs when not in use.
• If you have underfloor electric heating make sure you switch it off at night especially if you are turning them on manually, and setup a time that they go off (if applicable).
• when making a cup of tea or coffee, only fill the kettle up enough for the amount you need - filling up to the top of the kettle each time will earth into your bills especially if you drink a few cups a day!

Also make sure you check your tariff you might be able to save some cash switching providers

Please feel free to post your tips, and help us all reduce our carbon foot print, and most importantly save us some cash

hope it helps

 

[wiz569]

Good topic @Mick

Can you get direct replacement led bulbs for,lets say,60w SES bulb and also 60-100w BC bulbs,
or is it more complicated then that?

 

[Napster]

at the moment I'm on a fixed rate until march, not sure what to do then if I sign up and stay on will the price drop and I will be paying more, now the question is will the government step in before then and make the reduce the amount they charge.

 

[Mick]

Good topic @Mick

Can you get direct replacement led bulbs for,lets say,60w SES bulb and also 60-100w BC bulbs,
or is it more complicated then that?

Yes you can...

Candle bulbs can come in E14, E22, B15, B22.

You will need to know what type of bulb you have then type in Google or eBay for a LED replacement.

The only thing I would add regarding LED is dimming they operate on such small wattage you might need to buy a dimmer that operates at a lower wattage. Also you will kill an LED if it's used on a dimmer and it's non dimmable!

 

[Him Her]

Good topic @Mick

Can you get direct replacement led bulbs for,lets say,60w SES bulb and also 60-100w BC bulbs,
or is it more complicated then that?

Pretty much any format M8 although you may have to order certain types online (like BC). They aint cheap at £15-20 a lamp but I did a quick calc on my house. If I replaced them all it would be about £250 but my electricity bill would drop by about that over 1-2 years.

I'm doing it gradually by hitting the high usage ones first like lounge, dining, kitchen etc.

Shop around for best prices and beware of deals dumping old stock - the later models are much closer in light colour etc. so they are pretty much indistinguishable from incandescent. For a cheaper alternative that will knock less off your bills but is more affordable look for halogen inserts (about £2).

Savings - LED about 80%, halogen inserts about 25%.

 

[The Dentist]

Funny you should start this thread Mick....
only yesterday i got my electricity bill through because i dont know if you remember, last year i started a thread about high electricity bill, this year, for september i had a bill, estimated at 70 pounds because they were using last years figures. When i gave them the actual reading, it went down to 30 quid. The only change that we made was change all bulbs to LED. so that actually more than halved my bill.

 

[rawsy]

Haven't looked in to it but have seen a few led lights in class ohlson

http://m.clasohlson.com/uk/Standard-LED-Bulb/18-2314

I have been thinking about them . Some are fearsome cheap

 

[deej01]

i've just tried fixing mine waiting on reply to email, prices only seem to go up

 

[Him Her]

Haven't looked in to it but have seen a few led lights in class ohlson

Standard LED Bulb - V-LIGHT | Clas Ohlson

I have been thinking about them . Some are fearsome cheap

I'd see them powered up first M8

 

[hamnida]

Have changed 6 50W halogen GU 10 bulbs for 6 4W LED's GU10 brightness a little less but 300W against 24W no contest

 

[digidude]

in february, i replaced my 40W SES spotlights with new fittings, and GU10 LED bulbs in the livingroom, hall, landing and porch, 14 bulbs in total. i got 1.4W white light ones, and its actually a lot brighter than i imagined it would be, the light looks a lot cleaner as well (shows up the kids grubby fingerprints on fookin everything). through the summer, ive noticed that im using less electricity per month than i normally was, the real test will be over the winter, with more lights on for longer etc

 

[oneman]

Bit of an investment but if your house is suitable then PV panels are still worth looking at especially if you consider that electricity prices are only ever going to go up.

 

[Spectre]

Bit of an investment but if your house is suitable then PV panels are still worth looking at especially if you consider that electricity prices are only ever going to go up.

What are current options like for PV with storage and inverter? What sort of battery life before replacement.

 

[trevortron]

I recently had a couple of whopper bills, which made me look closely at how some savings could be made. I'm not guilty of leaving lights on (most are energy-savers anyway), don't use electricity for heating or cooking, so I started looking at things that are on continuously and taking daily meter readings. It turns out the fridge was one of the main culprits, 2 ~ 3 KWh / day. I didn't like it anyway, it came with the house, so got an A+++ rated one, consumption now < 1 unit/day. (and it's a lot quieter!). After that it was common-sense things; laptop chargers on 24/7, TV's on standby, clock/radio in guest bedroom and all sorts of other things which, when all added up were gobbling serious holes in the bank account.
Finally, as I am on an off-peak tariff, running the washing machine and dishwasher at night has also helped, the bi-monthly bill has dropped from almost 350€ to just over 200. At that rate the new fridge should pay for itself in less than a year.

 

[Mick]

What are current options like for PV with storage and inverter? What sort of battery life before replacement.

I thought in the uk it was mainly returned to the grid?


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[Him Her]

I thought in the uk it was mainly returned to the grid?


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Assuming you choose to go down the Feed-in-Tariff route - nowt to stop you doing your own thing

 

[zad]

If you can't afford to pay for the panels then take advantage of A Shade Greeners deal of free panels. All you have to do is adjust the way you use your electric then ie washing on during the day etc.

I keep getting companies calling about free boilers on the GreenDeal(I know it aint free) but I will see what the figures are when they come see me as at the moment I can't afford the 2k it would cost me to pay for it myself. My boiler is 16 years old so I would benefit massively.

I looked in to LED bulbs but I cam back with the conclusion that I would have to wait for 15 years or so to make the money back on the initial outlay over the 12v ones I already have lol so I will stick with them.

 

[lagigolo]

I would check if your energy supplier is offering a free energy meter, maybe somebody can confirm who is at the moment.

 

[Mick]

Another tip for the tea drinkers is to only fill up your kettle for enough to make your tea... Filling up to the top of the kettle for one cup of tea is a sure way to eat into your bills.

 

[Abu Baniaz]

Another tip for the tea drinkers is to only fill up your kettle for enough to make your tea... Filling up to the top of the kettle for one cup of tea is a sure way to eat into your bills.

I found it hysterical that "green" kettles were just smaller kettles.

They do fulfill their purpose though.