Energy Saving

Here's a list of common appliances and how much energy they use.

https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and...am-i-using

Looking at that list, I would only use it as a rough guide.
We have a fridge/freezer that uses about 210kwh per year not the 1750kwh minimum suggested.
And  a very old chest freezer that uses about 783 units still a lot less than the 1400 units suggest. But I suppose that is for an upright freezer. I have been thinking that we should replace this with a more efficient one but it keeps working and has a very large capacity. One the same size would hold a lot less produce and likely not be as well made mechanically.

A hifi unit and a computer that was on standby were both using 100units a year - so they've been turned off.

A socked that has the cordless phone, internet and is also used with a laptop used about 175 units a year. I didn't check each individually as we would still use them all. If the electric goes up more though, I might check whether it is worth switching the internet off when not in use - except BT have just moved the phone line on to the internet so that's not an option.

The temperature in our living room is set at what we find comfortable while wearing good quality woolen  jumpers. it tends to be 18C unless it is very sunny as it is south facing, like now it has jumped up to 20C

I checked our microwave in standby mode and it used 7 units per year.

You're a man after P's heart Mark. Just the sort of thing he would do.

When I got the new grow light at the end of 2020, I also bought a Watt meter to adjust the dimmer switch on the light to set it to the required wattage. At some point I went around the house testing the wattage of various things, and found that newer TVs on standby draw no power, or at least less than 0.1W (they must need some electricity to keep the red light on), despite what you read on many websites. Mobile phone chargers also don't draw any power if left on at the switch or if a phone with full battery is left plugged in.

The Virgin TV box draws around 20W constantly, even in standby, so now we have it in Eco Low Power mode which shuts it down when it's not been used for X amount of time.

An electric toothbrush charger draws about 0.2W constantly, even with no toothbrush attached, so it's best to turn them off at the plug when you're not charging (would cost about 34p a year if left on 24/7).

My laptop right now is charging and drawing about 17W at max screen brightness, 11W at minimum screen brightness, 0.5W with the screen off and on standby. The charge on a smartphone also lasts much longer if you lower the brightness.

What type of Watt meter did you get TMTT? P's interested know.

Something like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/230V-250V-Monit...B07FZZ17ZY - but you can get the same one on eBay for less.

Something like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/230V-250V-Monit...B07FZZ17ZY - but you can get the same one on eBay for less.

Thanks TMTT