Lighting master switch

[JohnW2]

we are paying 2/3 of that for ours, but night units are under 7p.
I think other tariffs are available.

I'm paying nearly 91% of eric's figure during the day (16.34p) but, like you, only 6.89p at night.

When I last looked, my supplier's single-tariff price was 14.39p. (all figures include VAT).

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

OK 18p 14p 10W 8W the point is with LED lighting hardly worth the effort. Remote switching to make the place look occupied OK, so you don't need to leave your chair OK but to save money simply not worth the effort.

 

[JohnD]

I was never allowed to leave lights on.

As Eric says, those days are gone (if they ever existed). I don't know what a kWh on the Lights meter used to cost when you were a boy.

Today my rate for electricity is

Your tariff is SSE 1 Year Fixed v11
Standard energy xxxkWh at 11.46p £xx.xx

plus 5% VAT.

If I had 10 10W LED lamps running for 12 hours, it would cost me just under fourteen and a half pence inc VAT.

About the same as running a kettle for three minutes.

Do I care?

I have timers for the porch, hall and landing lights, and table lamps in the main living room, because they are needed every evening.

 

[winston1]

As Eric says, those days are gone (if they ever existed). I don't know what a kWh on the Lights meter used to cost when you were a boy.

Nor do I. But I think lighting was a small part of the total electricity cost, it is even more so now. But most people, including my parents and the OP don't seem to understand that. So there is a desire to turn them off when not needed. In my day it was done with strict parenting as it should be now rather than trying to find some complicated technical solution.

 

[JohnD]

In my day it was done with strict parenting as it should be now

there is no need for it now.

 

[EFLImpudence]

14.5p per day that you don't care about would work out, for 30 million houses in Britain, to over 1.5 billion pounds per year.

Not sure how many similar properties there are in the world.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

there is no need for it now.

Nonsense.

No matter what the price of it, you do not use it unnecessarily. It's a blindingly simple principle - if you don't need it on, turn it off. Once you recognise that you don't need any energy monitors etc, which, let's face it, just tell you that you are thick.

 

[JohnD]

1.5 billion pounds per year.

wrong.

 

[JohnW2]

wrong.

There's nothing wrong with EFLI's arithmetic - what is it you're saying is "wrong"?

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

14.5p per day that you don't care about would work out, for 30 million houses in Britain, to over 1.5 billion pounds per year.

A sum of nugatory pocket change compared to what the ******* are going to lose us.

 

[Lectrician]

Each lighting circuit (eg upstairs, downstairs) would require a 1.0 or 1.5mm2 t+e run between the consumer unit and the back door switch position.

And a few 6 amp connectors blocks in the consumer unit to do a couple of clever joints.

Why bother with all of this though?

One twin and earth per circuit and one terminal block would be ample

 

[ericmark]

In my day it was done with strict parenting as it should be now rather than trying to find some complicated technical solution.

I have that feeling if my children started hitting their children with a dog lead as my sister regularly got, not me I was a good boy, I think it could generate a court case. One is not allowed to parent children in the same way. As said over the sex scandal don't think it was ever right, however it was accepted.
At 7 I had to get my self up for school and there was no parent in the house, mother in hospital father in work, today that would not be allowed. But when I was 7 my dad and next door were the only people in the street with cars. So there was not the danger we have today.
Parking a van outside your house when I was a boy would have had the council knocking the door reminding one your not allowed to run a business from the house.
We can automate lights, we can get PIR light switches and timer light switches, I have worked in an office with PIR lights and had to wave hands to get them back on, in factories the lights were on large contactors so it switches all three phases at 16A per phase, we found problems controlling large areas with one switch because some one would be in that area that the person switching was unaware of, the same could happen in the home, crossing the room to turn a light back on is one thing, moving through the house is something else, the house would need to be really tidy nothing ever left on the floor.
Our kids were not allowed TV after a set time, but it was not remotely turned off, we trusted them, and they were caught out when they watched something funny they would laugh, caught.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

To the OP- it is completely doable (I'd be using 1 relay per lighting circuit from the CU and maybe an impulse relay as the master so you could have 2 or 3 switch points without having to faff with intermediate switches) but don't do it. We had a similar setup at a large building but we never used it- part of locking the place up was to check every room to ensure fires, fans and other appliances were switched off, no burning fag ends in ashtrays (yes it was a while ago) and windows were closed and locked so while you do that you turn the lights off.

 

[sparkwright]

Nonsense.

No matter what the price of it, you do not use it unnecessarily. It's a blindingly simple principle - if you don't need it on, turn it off. Once you recognise that you don't need any energy monitors etc, which, let's face it, just tell you that you are thick.

Agree with this.

People should be taught not to be wasteful. This applies to everything.

 

[JohnW2]

People should be taught not to be wasteful. This applies to everything.

Indeed it does, but few people (probably not even BAS) are perfect so, if it is fairly easily done (with minimal cost, in the widest sense), it probably makes sense to implement things which either over-ride or remind them about their 'oversights'.

One also has to consider what one regards as 'waste'. If we were prepared to wear 'outdoor clothes' in our homes and retire to our beds throughout the hours of darkness etc. etc., we could dramatically reduce 'wastage' of energy on lighting and heating our homes - but I don't think that many of us would want to do such things.

Kind Regards, John