We worked out that we were averaging £24 a month. But really we would like to average £20. So where could the savings be made this time (having done a lot previously)? It so happened there was an article in the weekend newspaper on the subject so I had a go at some of the suggestions.
1. Turn off your BT hub. Unless you are constantly on the web what is the point at it is really sucking the juice. We worked out at this time of year with being out gardening etc we only went on line over a 2 - 4 hour period each day. So that is 20 hours plus of electricity being used keeping it on.
2. Think about standby again. I have previously unplugged radios and CD players that are only used a few times a week and I turn off the small kitchen TV at the plug. The newspaper suggested more major appliances. I have started to turn off the cooker - most cooking at present is between 1 pm and 6 pm, So it is just displaying the time for 19 hours in a room with 4 other clocks !
3, Think about TV time. Sometimes we are just channel surfing, or both of us are reading and not really watching. Our big TV and sky box use a lot of power. We estimate one hour less per day would save £2 a month!
4. Don't forget those re-chargers - husband left a power tool battery on for hours the other day and as I was going to bed just asked why was the unit doing 330 watts? Lucky catch otherwise it could have been another 24 hours before he went back to that shed!
We have observed in the last couple of days that when the house is "at rest" and nothing much is happening (when not even the fridge is running) we are using a steady 20 watts now. I would like to kill a few more standbys but the husband hates resetting the times on some things.
Things like don't wash unless there is a full load, use all the space in the over, only boil water needed, etc are all everyday actions to us thrifty living people. As I actually hate vacuuming I did consider one further electricity use saving today -in my early married life we had a carpet sweeper you pushed round by hand.
Do you remember those?
Could it be a good idea now, especially as I only have one room with carpet? (rest is tiles and laminate which I sweep or mop mostly).