Frugal Engery Saving Tips

Davy

To make tips easier to find, use a different thread for each topic.

So any Energy saving tips can go here................

Boogietime

A timer can save a lot of money, if yer looking at a gas bill. In practice, I set up my timer to start half an hour before I get home so by the time I enter the house there is heat already, and within the hour it reaches the desired temperature. Then off for half hour, again on for one, then off for an entire hour and so on and so fourth until I leave again for work. During the night, the heater is more off than on as sleeping in a bit colder environment is actually good for yer brain. This cycle ensures that my gas heater isn't pumping heat at all times but only as much as it's needed. Furthermore, you can buy a fancy timer with temperature control and that will save even more!

On the pc side: shut down your pc at night to save more energy. A 650 watt psu won't take as much when it's not being used but on the long run it'll save you good money to turn off rather than leave idle or set to sleep.

Buy eco light bulbs for all the lamps/ceiling lights. The difference between 100w and 15 will be noticeable on the long run!

A laptop takes way less energy but the downside is that it'll be considerably more expensive for similar specs than a desktop so it's not worth investing (since with a bit of knowledge you can change and upgrade parts in the desktop yourself). Go for Amd cpu and nvidia graphics, they're generally less power hungry but that can also differ from model to model.

Pang

Never leave any appliance on stand by.

Make sure to always plug out your phone charger.

Boogietime

Pang wrote: »

Never leave any appliance on stand by.

Make sure to always plug out your phone charger.

Actually on 5mw as the phone charger has while not charging, that would be €1 saving across several years. But it's better to remove from the perspective that it'll last you longer most likely if it's not under 220 all the time.

More tips on other savings:

Learn how to solder, it will get you out of many hassles - one experience I had was with smalls shops on Henry's asking me for €10-15 to solder a cable to a headphone jack (I had both, just needed the connection)... So I went over in Peats, bought me a soldering iron for 9, solder for 2 and got a fresh sponge to clean off the excess and voila, couple of hours later I was back enjoying my headphones.

Cook, it'll be much cheaper than going out to eat (even at the local chipper) or buy frozen foods with no preservatives&any other chemicals

Get a Leap Card or a monthly combi ticket if you're using bus&luas constantly, it'll save way more than actually paying for every ticket; even better - get a bicycle! You'll get where you're going faster and not with much effort and it's free (yet)!

rubadub

Pang wrote: »

Never leave any appliance on stand by.

Make sure to always plug out your phone charger.

Appliances on standby are giving off the majority of energy as heat. If your house is thermostatically controlled with electric heat then it will be on more to compensate for any lost heat from your unplugged "radiators".

Though they give off very little anyway.

Big losses are electrical heating. So you could leave clothes out to dry or partially dry and then tumbledry. My tumbledrier is in the kitchen and is condensing one so heats the room a bit.

Kettles can be a big waste, many people just blindly fill them to the brim when all they need is a cup. Again this heat will go towards heating the room but is a loss if you do not want it heated. Microwaves are less efficient at heating water than kettles, but you can microwave a cup of water which heats the cup and water, some people swish boiling water in a cold cup to warm it. Those 1 cup water boiling elements can be best if all you want is a cup.

People also waste a lot of energy with ovens. I find lots of food does fine without preheating. I also turn off before its done and the remaining heat goes on cooking. I have an airfryer now which is far more efficient. And a pressure cooker.

otterj

Boogietime wrote: »

Actually on 5mw as the phone charger has while not charging, that would be €1 saving across several years. But it's better to remove from the perspective that it'll last you longer most likely if it's not under 220 all the time.

More tips on other savings:

Learn how to solder, it will get you out of many hassles - one experience I had was with smalls shops on Henry's asking me for €10-15 to solder a cable to a headphone jack (I had both, just needed the connection)... So I went over in Peats, bought me a soldering iron for 9, solder for 2 and got a fresh sponge to clean off the excess and voila, couple of hours later I was back enjoying my headphones.

Cook, it'll be much cheaper than going out to eat (even at the local chipper) or buy frozen foods with no preservatives&any other chemicals

Get a Leap Card or a monthly combi ticket if you're using bus&luas constantly, it'll save way more than actually paying for every ticket; even better - get a bicycle! You'll get where you're going faster and not with much effort and it's free (yet)!

This only applies to ppl living in Dublin - the tip about the bike & leap card

loyatemu

Pang wrote: »

Never leave any appliance on stand by.

AFAIK modern appliances use tiny amounts of energy when on standby - this advice is based on old appliances that used a lot more. No harm in turning them off, but it won't save you much money

Make sure to always plug out your phone charger.

again, modern phone chargers are switched and use barely any power when the phone is not plugged into them. A faulty one may be a fire hazard but I'm not sure how likely that is.

I'm skeptical about the OP's boiler advice as well - it takes the same amount of energy to raise a room from 10 degrees to 20 degrees once as it would to raise it from 18 to 20 five times during the course of the night. We have ours off overnight, then set to come back on in the morning.

Better advice is to turn down your thermostat, buy a decent winter duvet, put on a jumper and improve your house insulation.

imitation

Attic insulation, provided it can be installed easily, provides good savings for the investment.

Sam Kade

https://www.electricireland.ie/ei/residential-energy-services/reduce-your-costs/appliance-calculators.jsp

Appliance calculator

unkel

Boogietime wrote: »

On the pc side: shut down your pc at night to save more energy. A 650 watt psu won't take as much when it's not being used but on the long run it'll save you good money to turn off rather than leave idle or set to sleep.

I have a PC that I use as media player and as NAS. It is always on but goes asleep by itself. It's asleep for about 22h per day. It uses 4W when asleep. So leaving it asleep costs me €5 per year

Not really worth shutting it down, is it?

Although some people don't seem to mind switching an appliance off to save themselves 1 cent everytime they switch it off

PeterDuggan

unkel wrote: »

leaving it asleep costs me €5 per year

I make it ~50c a year. And every time you switch an appliance on and off reduces it's lifetime.

rubadub

PeterDuggan wrote: »

I make it ~50c a year.

I have €6.42

4watts*22hours*365days*0.20euro per unit
.004*22*365*.20=6.42

PeterDuggan

Can't argue with that. /Tossing calculator in bin/

unkel

PeterDuggan wrote: »

I make it ~50c a year.

4W * 22h * 365 days = 32kWh per year

At €0.16 per kWh that's €5 per year

As for phone chargers, I just tested the one of my modern smartphone, a Nokia Lumia. It uses no electricity when the phone is not plugged into it...

Edit - rubadub beat me to it. I should have hit "post" before going off for lunch

loyatemu

unkel wrote: »

As for phone chargers, I just tested the one of my modern smartphone, a Nokia Lumia. It uses no electricity when the phone is not plugged into it...

yeah, AFAIK most modern chargers are switched, so they can detect when there is something plugged into the other end (presumably they use a few micro-watts to do this, might not be enough to register on a power meter though).

rubadub

The old style chargers are a little bigger and get warm when plugged in, usually warm whether charging or not. You get new sleek looking ones which do not get noticeably warm, so not power is being dissipated off as heat.

The one registering no power might be using just a tiny amount, and the power meter might not show it, if left in for a week it might show it. You really need a mulitmeter in line to show if any current is drawn at all, most power meters are expecting to be metering reasonable amounts.

Just found this online
Sample standby power amounts
10.4W - Printer (HP Laser Jet 2200d)
8.2W - Router (Netgear DG834PN)
2.8W - Monitor (Dell 1907FPT, Elite Group EZX15G)
1.6W - Phone Charger (Samsung phone charger for D900)
0.4W - iPod charger

finix

It's only a small thing but when finished cooking in the oven, leave the oven door wide open when you switch it off. Heats the room up lovely for a good hour or so

Sh1tbag OToole

Get rid of unused or under utilised PC / networking equipment such as network switches with only 2 ports in use, powered speakers, laser printer thats used once in a blue moon

When building a desktop PC, get the low power processor, often not a huge performance drop but can save 30-50W at full tilt. Get a decent power supply, remove little-used hard drives or put them into standby.

Dont bother getting a laptop or tablet to save power. it wont pay off

Put the fridge in a cold room, de ice regularly.

Replace frequently used lights with LED, stay away from cheap Chinese own brand tripe

finix

I use electric storage heaters on the night saver electric rate. They kick in at midnight and click off at 8am. I used to just leave them on all night to heat up but last month while up at 4am I knocked them off. They were as hot next day after just 4 hours charge as they would be after 8 hours. No difference in heat output next day.

L1011

finix wrote: »

It's only a small thing but when finished cooking in the oven, leave the oven door wide open when you switch it off. Heats the room up lovely for a good hour or so

As it will if you leave the door closed. Heat cannot dissapear.

finix

MYOB wrote: »

As it will if you leave the door closed. Heat cannot dissapear.

But I am talking about a blast of heat. If I followed your logic it would be like taking a hot water bottle to bed but putting it in a large cardboard box before putting it under the duvet It cannot disappear but can disperse in a way that is not economically viable.

Jellybaby1

Maybe 'twas yourself, but I've seen this tip somewhere here recently. I usually leave the door open after I take out the casserole and switch the oven off. Cosy knees, cosy kitchen. Job's oxo!

L1011

finix wrote: »

But I am talking about a blast of heat. If I followed your logic it would be like taking a hot water bottle to bed but putting it in a large cardboard box before putting it under the duvet It cannot disappear but can disperse in a way that is not economically viable.

Going out in one "blast" is a pretty unviable mode of release

mjv2ydratu679c

finix wrote: »

But I am talking about a blast of heat. If I followed your logic it would be like taking a hot water bottle to bed but putting it in a large cardboard box before putting it under the duvet It cannot disappear but can disperse in a way that is not economically viable.

Economically viable is the wrong term - you've spent the same amount of money on electricity whether you open the door straight away or leave it closed.

ei9go

Pang wrote: »

Never leave any appliance on stand by.

Always leave your electronic equipment on stand by.

They use very little power and many failures of electronic equipment are caused by the switch mode power supply dying from the power surge at switch on.

It will cost you more in the long run to turn them off

rubadub

MYOB wrote: »

Going out in one "blast" is a pretty unviable mode of release

Depends on the situation, sometimes I leave it open sometimes not. I come home from work and the kitchen is freezing, so I leave it open afterwards and eat my dinner, my table is really near it. I am not sitting in the kitchen for any length of time after that so the quick blast makes sense. At christmas time I am more likely to be in & out of the kitchen all day, so leave it closed.

finix wrote: »

I use electric storage heaters on the night saver electric rate. They kick in at midnight and click off at 8am. I used to just leave them on all night to heat up but last month while up at 4am I knocked them off. They were as hot next day after just 4 hours charge as they would be after 8 hours. No difference in heat output next day.

There should have been a difference in output the next day, the energy/heat has to go somewhere. If you did not notice a 1-2degree difference that's fine, I am not saying you are lying or anything, and you should continue doing the cheaper option if it is still comfortable.

Just want to make sure people understand there is no miraculous way of cheating energy. Similar to the oven idea some people think fan heaters are terrible, since when they turn off no heat is given out, and they think the dimplex oil filled wheelie heaters are amazing as they hold heat for ages after turning off. But the oil ones take ages to heat up. I use a fan heater in my bedroom in the morning, istant heat and when i leave the room there it is not still outputting heat for an hour or so.

Storage heaters would not suit me at all, I had them in one house, blazing heat all day when nobody was there, came home after work to a cold house. My housemates parents owned the house and wanted them left on all day to stop damp.

L1011

ei9go wrote: »

Always leave your electronic equipment on stand by.

They use very little power and many failures of electronic equipment are caused by the switch mode power supply dying from the power surge at switch on.

It will cost you more in the long run to turn them off

Seriously depends on the power consumption of the device. Power supplies are cheap and if you're anything like me you'll have a drawer of ones from long gone devices (learn what the polarity symbols are before susbtituting anything through) for if/when they go; but some devices still consume huge amounts in "standby".

Worst offenders are older Sky boxes however these have internal power supplies that are known to blow and also need to download software overnight. Standby is only a few watts lower than being fully on with these.

unkel

MYOB wrote: »

Worst offenders are older Sky boxes however these have internal power supplies that are known to blow and also need to download software overnight. Standby is only a few watts lower than being fully on with these.

Not just Sky. Had an old UPC box that used 35W in stand bye :eek:

Also an oldish LCD TV (from around '06) using 25W in stand bye :eek:

Current UPC horizon box uses a lot less even though when the TV bit is in stand bye, it is still working as a broadband modem and as a telephone point (both always on)

Your best investment is a €9.99 power meter from the likes of Lidl / Aldi and spend an hour walking around the house plugging in all your electrical devices

rubadub

Some meters will not work well on low power. I see this suggestion on wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power#Measuring_standby_power

In practice, accuracy of measurements by meters with poor performance at low power levels can be improved by measuring the power drawn by a fixed load such as an incandescent light bulb, adding the standby device, and calculating the difference in power consumption.[20]
Less expensive wattmeters may be subject to significant inaccuracy at low current (power). They are often subject to other errors due to their mode of operation:
If the load is highly reactive, the power shown by some meters may be inaccurate. Meters capable of displaying power factor do not have this problem.
Many AC meters are designed to give readings that are only meaningful for the sinusoidal waveforms of normal ac power. Waveforms for switched-mode power supplies as used in much electronic equipment may be very far from sinusoidal, causing power readings of such meters to be meaningless. Meters specified to read "RMS power" do not have this problem.

digiboxes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digibox#Power_consumption

Standard Digiboxes use almost as much power in standby as when active; the "standby" setting merely mutes the sound and cuts off the picture, but internal signal processing continues at the same rate.[6] Sky+ boxes are believed to reduce their power consumption more significantly in standby because they can spin down hard disks. Power consumption for the standard box varies from around 10 to 18 Watts. Most Sky+HD boxes consume up to 60W when active, falling to ~30W when the disc is powered down. To some degree, this has been addressed with the latest DRX890/895 HD boxes. These have a power consumption of 45W max but now have a "deep sleep" mode consuming around 1/2 W

L1011

I've a distinct feeling I wrote that on the Wiki (digibox bit).