Which devices are boosting your electricity bill?

[ProDave]

2 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Can you do anything about that Tumble Dryer?

 

eg Pulley Maid.

We have long since determined it is only socks and towels that need to be tumbled to pass the "fluffy" test, but they do not need to come out bone dry, slightly damp and finish off on the pulley is okay.

 

Nothing else goes in the dryer.

[AliG]

2 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Can you do anything about that Tumble Dryer?

 

eg Pulley Maid.

I already have installed simple cable in the laundry room for drying sheets. We found that they often got tangled in the dryer so didn't dry properly and people would just keep putting them back in the dryer.

 

Persuading my wife not to average using more than one towel a day is a different matter. I reckon towels account for abound one third of our laundry.

[SteamyTea]

500 Wh/mile seems high, thought little EVs use about 200 Wh/mile.

A litre of gasoline has around 9 kWh, diesel about 10 kWh.

So your Tesla does about 20 miles to the litre, or about 90 MPG.

Swap it for a Leaf. The seats will be comfy enough as you only do about a third of the milage I do.

[AliG]

The 492Wh/mile is all usage divided by miles travelled.

 

So running the heater for 15 minutes before getting in the car, which might use 1.5kWh is included in the energy usage. The car also preheats the battery if you set up the scheduled heating which would use a similar amount of energy.

 

Most trips are short and energy usage in the winter is higher due to heating the car and the battery.

 

It is an enormous car that can do 0-60 in 5 seconds. Someone at work has a Range Rover Sport v8 supercharged with similar performance, but which is smaller. It does 14MPG, so for a like for like car it is a massive improvement.

[SteamyTea]

5 seconds to 60 is not much use to me at the moment, the roads are blocked up with large SUVs.

(Not decrying the technical achievements, but like a TV that is as large as a wall, is it really necessary against the backdrop of energy saving).

[pdf27]

24 minutes ago, AliG said:

Thanks for that very detailed response. I am just calling it a dehumidifier, but it is a massive box that also heats the pool using a heat exchanger connected to the boiler and supplies fresh air to vents in front of all the windows in the room to prevent condensation and improve air quality.

 

The spec has been set up to remove an average of 2l/hr from the air and for a room of 338m3 versus the roughly 220m3 of volume that we actually have. So it may be that it is using somewhat less electricity than in the spec or it is over ventilating the room. The spec is based on an average of 0.5 changes per hour.

 

It does indeed run for a short amount of time many times a day, but it also is tasked with quickly raising the air temperature in the room form 22C to the high 20s when you open the pool and start to use it.

 

As I assume it runs off the humidistat, if the spec over ventilates the room, I would assume it uses less electricity in practice than the spec suggests.

I suspect it might well already use ventilation rather than a dehumidifier to remove water from the air in that case.

[joe90]

Not having a tumble drier was part of my low usage strategy, yes @SteamyTea it is, do you need it back?

[SteamyTea]

Just now, joe90 said:

do you need it back?

No,, I shall get the data off when we balance your MVHR.

 

[AliG]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

5 seconds to 60 is not much use to me at the moment, the roads are blocked up with large SUVs.

(Not decrying the technical achievements, but like a TV that is as large as a wall, is it really necessary against the backdrop of energy saving).

Yes!

 

Getting off topic but-

 

Different people have a different opinions obviously.

 

My view is that we should use technology to be able to live whatever life we want as efficiently as we can. We are fast moving towards 100% renewable electricity supply.

 

Progress has and will continue to fix problems. The lifestyle we live today would have used easily three times as much energy 40 years ago.
 

 

 

 

[daiking]

2 hours ago, AliG said:

I already have installed simple cable in the laundry room for drying sheets. We found that they often got tangled in the dryer so didn't dry properly and people would just keep putting them back in the dryer.

 

Persuading my wife not to average using more than one towel a day is a different matter. I reckon towels account for abound one third of our laundry.

You are an absolute hero/saint.

 

”people” as in those ***** I live with. Here it’s “WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO has done x/y/z”. My mother in law is like that with towels. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by daiking
Well THAT isn’t in the swear filter ?

[AliG]

My wife is American, which I feel explains things without adding anything else.

 

I explained that we could save £20 a year if we switched off the pool lights at the socket. I got a blank expression that said why are you wasting my time with this.

 

Her view is that if you can afford it why would you care. My view is I will spend lots of money on things that I enjoy, I consistently take loads of family members on holiday with us. But I also enjoy saving money and not wasting it.
 

Everyone is different. We’d all be a lot happier if we accepted that. I try very hard not to give people unasked for advice. No one ever takes it, it just winds them up. Live your best life and don’t get involved if you don’t have to.

 

Ironically that is advice!

Edited August 9, 2020 by AliG

[daiking]

16 minutes ago, AliG said:

My wife is American, which I feel explains things without adding anything else.

 

I explained that we could save £20 a year if we switched off the pool lights at the socket. I got a blank expression that said why are you wasting my time with this.

 

Her view is that if you can afford it why would you care. My view is I will spend lots of money on things that I enjoy, I consistently take loads of family members on holiday with us. But I also enjoy saving money and not wasting it.
 

Everyone is different. We’d all be a lot happier if we accepted that. I try very hard not to give people unasked for advice. No one ever takes it, it just winds them up. Live your best life and don’t get involved if you don’t have to.

 

Ironically that is advice!

Mine is Greek ?‍♂️

[Ferdinand]

@AliG

 

"Laundry room". - I should have guessed ?

 

I think your comment about many Americans not getting the point of hair shirts for the sake of it is well made. 

 

There is a parallel one where some green enthusiasts don't get the point of using energy efficiency for facilitating an existing lifestyle rather than making an even more tightly woven hair shirt.

 

Good conversation.

 

Do you have a number for energy use per unit area?

 

Ferdinand

 

[Pete]

9 hours ago, AliG said:

My wife is American, which I feel explains things without adding anything else.

 

I explained that we could save £20 a year if we switched off the pool lights at the socket. I got a blank expression that said why are you wasting my time with this.

 

Her view is that if you can afford it why would you care. My view is I will spend lots of money on things that I enjoy, I consistently take loads of family members on holiday with us. But I also enjoy saving money and not wasting it.
 

Everyone is different. We’d all be a lot happier if we accepted that. I try very hard not to give people unasked for advice. No one ever takes it, it just winds them up. Live your best life and don’t get involved if you don’t have to.

 

Ironically that is advice!

My brother lives in America and has done for 30+ years. He has just the re-fitted his utility room and all they do over there is stack the washer/dryer and put the wet laundry into the dryer every time. They do not hang washing out and do not seem bothered about the consequences of their actions

[joe90]

10 hours ago, AliG said:

Her view is that if you can afford it why would you care.

Depends if you care about global warming/pollution .

[Nickfromwales]

12 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Depends if you care about global warming/pollution .

Making an energy efficient home shows that they care   

Edited August 10, 2020 by Nickfromwales

[AliG]

5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Do you have a number for energy use per unit area?

I think my house runs at roughly 90kWh/metre a year, which is roughly half what my previous house ran at.

 

Most of this is gas for heating. Changing over to an ASHP, would more than half this figure.

 

5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

There is a parallel one where some green enthusiasts don't get the point of using energy efficiency for facilitating an existing lifestyle rather than making an even more tightly woven hair shirt.

 

Exactly, I think that in most cases we can fix things through the use of renewable energy, the main area where that is difficult is travel, but this is a relatively small part of emissions.

 

5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

I think your comment about many Americans not getting the point of hair shirts for the sake of it is well made

 

Americans in general have an entirely different outlook on life to many Europeans. In many ways it is refreshingly optimistic and forward thinking, but it is also very brash and focused on just yourself. Most of them don't really get conservation at all. Thus in the UK having an SUV is still seen as showy whereas in America it is both considered a show of success and also a useful tool.

 

They particularly struggle with conservation as they associate limiting yourself with being mean spirited and tight or poor. Their ancestors went to America for a better life of plenty and we are trying to ruin it for them. When some family members have been to stay, I have been simply gobsmacked at the amount of food they consume. They on the other hand are horrified that I might actually try and figure out how much people will eat and just buy that much food and not an amount extra to show my  generosity.

 

The British tendency to dislike waste fits in well in a world of conservation, and no doubt this helps us to move to lower emissions. In truth though a lot of it may be luck that people have been brought up to a different way of thinking as much as anything else. I was at the Porsche dealership the other day, they told me that the Taycan is now by far and away their best selling car. The vast majority they said are bought via businesses for the tax breaks. Thus lower emissions is just a handy byproduct of people trying to drive a nice car on the cheap.

[oldkettle]

On 09/08/2020 at 11:52, Christine Walker said:

I use the dishwasher every second day  on a quick wash (45mins) 

You might want to check the user guide of your dishwasher. The way they usually work (which is also true for washing machines) is faster wash takes more energy, not less, which kind of makes sense: who'd want to use other modes otherwise? On ours Eco mode is 3h15mins (who cares if it runs at night). 

[recoveringbuilder]

5 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

You might want to check the user guide of your dishwasher. The way they usually work (which is also true for washing machines) is faster wash takes more energy, not less, which kind of makes sense: who'd want to use other modes otherwise? On ours Eco mode is 3h15mins (who cares if it runs at night). 

So do you reckon I should be using eco mode? I have always avoided using it because of the length of time it takes! 

[oldkettle]

9 minutes ago, Christine Walker said:

So do you reckon I should be using eco mode? I have always avoided using it because of the length of time it takes! 

This is the one using less energy according to the docs. For us the run time is irrelevant as I load the machine late in the evening and it is quiet enough not to disturb our sleep. 

[daiking]

34 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

This is the one using less energy according to the docs. For us the run time is irrelevant as I load the machine late in the evening and it is quiet enough not to disturb our sleep. 

We like to run the dishwasher quick and early so the kids can put the dishes away before they go to bed ?

[ProDave]

15 minutes ago, daiking said:

We like to run the dishwasher quick and early so the kids can put the dishes away before they go to bed ?

Middle of the day for us (it will be going on shortly) so it can run from the solar PV power.

[daiking]

1 hour ago, Christine Walker said:

So do you reckon I should be using eco mode? I have always avoided using it because of the length of time it takes! 

 

Having checked the manual for my dishwasher, the quick programme use lower temperatures and fewer cycles than the ECO programme so I find it hard to believe that it uses more energy. However it is not a full wash so you have to manage what we put in it. I typically run a full programme weekly or so if we are having something like fish. 

[oldkettle]

23 minutes ago, daiking said:

 

Having checked the manual for my dishwasher, the quick programme use lower temperatures and fewer cycles than the ECO programme so I find it hard to believe that it uses more energy. 

That's why I said check the manual ?

[newhome]

On 10/08/2020 at 08:09, Pete said:

My brother lives in America and has done for 30+ years. He has just the re-fitted his utility room and all they do over there is stack the washer/dryer and put the wet laundry into the dryer every time. They do not hang washing out and do not seem bothered about the consequences of their actions

I mostly use the dryer for everything. The weather in Scotland and living by the sea invariably means that it either rains or is blowing a gale (sometimes both) for most of the year. I won’t have wet washing hanging in the house so I use the dryer. During the current (but possibly short lived) sunny period I have hung stuff outside a couple of times.