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Luckily for me, I signed up for new flat tariffs just before gas and electricity went crazy. However, I did see our monthly bills go up by around 40% and are now paying £220 a month, which is a lot for a family of two.
Like everyone else, I’ve been exploring ways to try and reduce usage. In our case, I’m very stingy with gas central heating and using zoned smart heating, our gas won’t cost us that much. It’s electricity that hits us hard.
In my case, I am self-employed, working from home. Writing about computers and networking means that not only do I keep my office running for 10+ hours a day, but I also have a server room with multiple other PCs and 24/7 networking gear. I classify it as a business cost, but I’ve been exploring how to reduce this cost and find out what’s causing our electricity bills to be so high.
So how do you find out how much power you’re using and identify problem devices?
smart meter
For UK households, the first step you should do is to buy a smart meter. These are free to install and I think all providers should offer them by now. This will allow you to get daily battery readings and show the actual cost. It should also update your suppliers regularly, which will make your bills more accurate.
Some companies allow you to integrate smart meters with other services. For example, light bulbs used to work with SmartThings to give you graphs of energy consumption.
TP-Link Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring
- TP-Link Casa KP115
- TP-Link Casa HS110
- TP-Link Tapo P110
I love the TP-Link Kasa series of smart plugs, I personally use a couple of the older ones HS110this is not the end of life.
I don’t like the way TP-Link has created two smart home brands with Kasa and Tapo, and in this case it’s especially frustrating. The HS110 is now at the end of its life and the only place I can find that sells the KP115 is a BT shop for £21
This TP-Link Tapo P110 is available from Amazon Just £15.
The Tapo series is not compatible with Kasa, there are not as many products in the Tapo series. This feels like a mean way of doing things.
In this case, your best bet is to run two separate applications. You might as well save your money and buy the TP-Link Tapo P110 instead of being forced to buy the more expensive Kasa series.
However, ignoring my questions about this system, it’s amazing. The smart plug works so well that I close the office on a daily schedule. Energy Monitoring gives you data for the current day, the last 7 days and the last 30 days. You can view daily averages and total consumption.
In my scenario, I’ve been trying to figure out how much power I can save by shutting down the server every day and only running it between 12pm and 8pm. It runs on about 150W, so shutting it down for 16 hours a day saves about 2.4Kw, or £0.46 a day. On the one hand, the savings doesn’t feel worth it, but it still costs almost £14 a month, and everything adds up.
Power Meter Plug / KillAwatt
The popular Kill A Watt brand is not sold in the UK, but there are many clones that do a similar job.
Curiously, these all cost about the same or more than the TP-Link Tapo P110.
Emporia Smart Home Energy Monitor
This monitor mounts on your board and monitors energy from there. There is an option to have 16 50A sensors and connect these sensors to each switch in the consumer unit.
Consumer units in the UK are so small that it seems difficult to fit additional sensors.
I would question how useful it is to just use the monitor. If you have a smart meter, this will give roughly similar data. You’ll get an accurate measure of your daily electricity usage, you won’t have the pretty graphs Emporia offers, but there’s no cost to a smart meter.
But if you have the ability to properly match one sensor to all, it should give you some amazing feedback on your usage.
Appliances that consume the most energy
Wet appliances – washing machine, dishwasher and electric shower
Anything that heats water uses a lot of electricity, which also gives you tips on how to reduce it.
Your washing machine may be the biggest culprit. It’s a little hard not to do laundry. However, most clothes do not need to be washed at high temperatures. Using 20°C water temperature is very good for anything that is not heavily stained, anything that is lightly soiled can be washed in cold water. Cold water washing increases the lifespan of your clothes and reduces microfiber contamination.
If you are using the economy 7 electricity rate during off-peak hours and electricity is cheaper, you should do your laundry and dishes during off-peak hours.
Cold appliances – refrigerators and freezers
Keeping cold temperatures also consumes a lot of power, which is another hard thing to cut down on.
If you happen to be running multiple refrigerators, such as a beer refrigerator, then maybe consider turning off non-essential refrigerators.
If you’re planning to buy a new refrigerator or freezer, then look for the highest energy rating you can afford, it can make a big difference.
Beyond that, in general, just try to reduce the amount of time you spend opening your refrigerator and freezer doors. When you decide what you want, don’t just open the door and hang around inside.
Cooking – electric oven, microwave, kettle
Again, heating things up is expensive. When we redoed our kitchen, we switched from a full gas oven to a dual fuel range oven with a huge electric oven cavity, which had a significant impact on our bill.
Like many people today, I am Air fryerThese still use a lot of power, and they work basically the same way as a fan-assisted oven, but the small compartment means they cook faster and have a smaller heating area, so power consumption is greatly reduced.
Consumer Electronics – Computers, Game Consoles, TVs
Massive TV, next-gen console Increasingly powerful gaming PCs all mean higher power usage.
In reality, however, this will be different.Your big tv Probably only on for a few hours a day, so it probably won’t use that much power. It has very little standby usage, but you can monitor it with one of the power meter plugs I mentioned earlier.
Game consoles and PCs are more or less the same. If you’re a gamer, you probably only use these devices for a few hours a day.
Working from home can be more problematic as the PC can be turned on for more than 8 hours a day. I also have three large monitors running. Our electricity bills are high, but I think it’s a business cost, which is cheaper than renting an office. In this case I would make sure to shut everything down completely when not in use and don’t leave your computer on all night.
light
If you’re running LEDs, they probably won’t use that much. LED bulbs are usually only around 10W, and GU10 spotlights are around 5W. In my office, I have three tint bulbs installed most of the day at around 0.36Kw or 7p per day. Obviously, these things add up, so you should still turn off the lights when not in use.
Last updated on March 11, 2022 / Affiliate Links / Image from Amazon Product Advertising API
