Energy saving myths

Wibbles

I get fed up with people (and official government advice) stating that considerable energy (and hence money) can be saved by not leaving TV's and similar equipment in standby mode !

A modern LED TV in standby mode uses such a tiny amount of electricity (basically enough to run a LED circuit (milliamps) to not notice any useage..

Then there's "Save any boiled water in a thermos - to save having to boil it again"

When they should say "Only boil the amount that you need, in the first place"

L_Volunteer

Thanks for sharing your views with us @Wibbles. I can hear that this makes you fed up and the reason why it makes you fed up. 

I thought your added tip was a great addition to your post! If anyone else wishes to respond to this thread please feel free to 

RetroRemix

Yep, another thing that is commonly said, is the saying to turn off your internet router at night to save money.

It will save money, but it will also mess up your broadband speed... because every time you turn it off, your internet provider flags it as a disconnection problem. 

So turning it off every night might result in them lowering your speed to compensate for the frequent disconnection problems their systems think you are having (Not all providers do this though), which also means a massive amount of money lost every month if you already pay a lot for that high speed connection!

Wibbles

Sky boxes will save a tiny amount too

WholeSumMum

I managed to speak to our broadband, tv, phone provider and managed to get same broadband speed, a few less channels (which we never watched anyway), a bit better phone package and will be saving £47 per month - did it just after a payment went through for older amount so will not see proper benefit until January 2023. Every time they ask for feed back I say I would rather build my own channels package and be charged accordingly - it may eventually get to this point.

WholeSumMum

As we have solar panels we try to use dishwasher / washing machine during daylight hours. Not always possible though. Have also found a way to check my own households "peak" useage times. From that we have turned down our shower temperature - helps a bit. Turned down the brightness and other settings on our smart tv (think if it was that smart it would do it itself). We have started to unplug as many plugs (we have mostly switchable multi sockets) as we can as soon as we can. Also the £6.99 I think, Netflix package isn't so bad either.

Wibbles

WholeSumMum said:

I managed to speak to our broadband, tv, phone provider and managed to get same broadband speed, a few less channels (which we never watched anyway), a bit better phone package and will be saving £47 per month - did it just after a payment went through for older amount so will not see proper benefit until January 2023. Every time they ask for feed back I say I would rather build my own channels package and be charged accordingly - it may eventually get to this point.

Its always worth negotiatng with your providers - especially if you are "out of contract"

I pay TalkTalk - £25 per month for unlimited 65Mbps fibre internet plus unlimited free calls !

And if you let your provider know that you are disabled - they will not apply annual price hikes during your contract............https://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband/help/broadband-on-benefits

TalkTalk even offer 6 months free connection (dependant on the Job Centre

Wibbles

RetroRemix said:

Yep, another thing that is commonly said, is the saying to turn off your internet router at night to save money.

It will save money, but it will also mess up your broadband speed... because every time you turn it off, your internet provider flags it as a disconnection problem. 

So turning it off every night might result in them lowering your speed to compensate for the frequent disconnection problems their systems think you are having (Not all providers do this though), which also means a massive amount of money lost every month if you already pay a lot for that high speed connection!

I agree about not turning off the router - my wife used to turn off my old MODEM (pre Router) and my speed dropped to 20kbps - I never figured out how to get it to increase back to a dizzy 56kbps

When I upgraded to fibre - she kept on turning the router off and the speed dropped from 70Mbps to 20Mbps - Necessitating a visit from Openreach to reset it !

Wibbles

I believe that a Router "should" eventually recover any connection speed lost - by switching it off and on a few times - but this takes several days / weeks ?

RetroRemix

I'm not too sure how to recover speed, but yes I think just leaving the router on for as long as you possibly can should eventually recover it over the days and weeks.

I think you can also phone Openreach/BT for a profile reset if your speed still does not get back up? I'm not sure, because I've never had to do it yet, so please don't take my word for it!

leeCal

I was told by a plumber that turning heating on and off was a false economy, he reckoned it was cheaper to leave it on as it simply needed to boost the temperature rather than reheat the whole house repeatedly having been switched off completely.

Dont know if it’s true or not, kinda makes sense.

Cartini

leeCal said:

I was told by a plumber that turning heating on and off was a false economy, he reckoned it was cheaper to leave it on as it simply needed to boost the temperature rather than reheat the whole house repeatedly having been switched off completely.

Dont know if it’s true or not, kinda makes sense.

Hi leeCal,

This is covered by Martin Lewis (Mods - this isn`t advertising, this is giving a link to help people with their heat management):

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/ 

Whether anyone places any value to his advice is another thing.

ShirleyW

leeCal said:

I was told by a plumber that turning heating on and off was a false economy, he reckoned it was cheaper to leave it on as it simply needed to boost the temperature rather than reheat the whole house repeatedly having been switched off completely.

Dont know if it’s true or not, kinda makes sense.

This is something I've heard too.  I think that it is possibly true because once a house gets cold it takes a long time for all the walls and doors etc to warm up.

I don't have central heating though.  What I do have is a gas fire in the living room downstairs and the chimney runs up the centre of the house, not on an outside wall. So the heat from the chimney bricks isn't lost because they are in the centre of the house alongside the stairs.  I can feel the warmth in them when going upstairs.

Leaving this gas fire on the lowest setting during very cold weather and the doors open downstairs keeps the whole house fairly warm.  And if necessary I have a gas wall heater on the landing.  Both fires use much less gas than a central heating boiler.

We also have cavity wall insulation and insulation in the loft.  Our double glazing is no longer very efficient so I have lovely thick curtains and close these in the late afternoon as soon as the light starts to go.  For hot water we have a multi point boiler which only comes on when we need hot water.