Oundle Transition Town Group

AIM: To reduce a domestic electricity bill.

APPROACH: I used power meters to monitor my electricity consumption and then used the data to analyse and reduce consumption.

OUTCOME: I believe that action has been taken that will reduce my electricity bill by over £100 every year.

ACTIONS:

• I noticed that even when I was away from the house, there was a significant amount of power being used. I made an inventory of all the electrical devices in each room, noting whether they run continuously, are on standby or are used intermittently. I calculated that every watt that I could take off the base load, would save over £1 per annum (1/1000 x 24 x 365 x £0.13 = £1.14). Where possible, I measured how much power each one consumed.

I found 46 electrical devices (timers, phones, clocks, aerial boosters etc) which run continuously and consume a total of 162 watts. The most power hungry is the Skybox (15watts) followed by the internet wireless hub (9watts).

I have reduced the number of devices which run continuously to 31 and they consume a total of 91watts. This should reduce my electricity bill by around £81 every year ((162 – 91) x £1.14 = £80.94).

• My fridge is over 20 years old and I have been thinking that even though it apparently fully functional I should change it for a more up-to-date model (fridges and freezers can become inefficient over time and consume significantly more power than indicated on their dataplate).

I selected an A+ efficiency model which consumes 131kwh per annum. When taking out the old fridge I noticed that when new, it was expected to consume 1.3kwh per day. This means that with the new fridge, I should save £45 every year ((1.3 x 365 - 131) x £0.13 = £44.65).

• I used the Eco Saver power meter to discover that the energy used by the dishwasher in one cycle is 1.7kwh. The latest A+ dishwashers use around 1kwh per cycle. When the time comes to change this appliance, a more energy efficient machine will give a further saving. If used once every day this would be £33 every year (365 x 0.7 x £0.13 = £33.21).

• I tried using the Eco Saver power meter to measure how much it was costs to power intermittently used devices over a 24 hour period. I checked my kettleand found that by only putting in the water I need, I use less than 1 kwh per day. The kettle has a flat bottom without an exposed element and this helps me to be economic.

• I use electricity for some space heating and I am trying to optimise the thermostat and timer settings to reduce the energy consumed.

• I have fitted a number of low energy light bulbs and although they are reasonably economic in power terms, I try to turn them off when not required. I am waiting for the efficiency and cost of LED lamps to improve so that I can replace some of my halogen lamps with low energy LED lamps.

Equipment used:

• OWL CM160 with USB Wireless Electricity Monitor - cost £38.16. This allows real time monitoring of power (in watts) and the ability to analyse historical consumption data on a computer at 1 minute intervals.
• Eco Saver mains power monitor - cost £14.99.   This plugs into a wall socket and allows the measurement of power used by an individual device (in watts). It can also measure the power consumed over time (in kwhours).