Usage when house unoccupied

[Vicario]

We went away for eight days and I turned off every electrical appliance apart from the fridge/freezer, the router (linked to alarm console, also left on of course), and a dab radio on standby that I had overlooked. I even turned off the boiler, but not the timer/controller which has to be kept energised. My daily consumption was 70p per day. So that's about 45p if you allow for the standard daily fee. Does that sound about right? So it costs £164 a year using practically nothing.

 

[ETAF]

The fridge freezer - where was it located and how hot and how full - not sure if this an old wifes tail, but we keep the freezer as full as possible - often just with bread - as an empty freezer apparently uses more power
whats the power rating of the fridge freezer - then use that to work out the cost @kWh based on it being on all the time , then a reduce by a factor
it wont be on all the time, and if not there , then you are not opening or closing , so it should stay constant temp with less power

Our fridge and freezer we have in the garage , i saw an increase in usage when i switched those on

The timer control will use power not much - again it may have its wattage on
DAB Radio on standby - if its new , then the standard should be to use less than 1W on standby -

1x24x8 = 192W - so 0.192Kw - * by unit cost - say now 40p (i dont know the latest costs) , thats about 8p , just to have on standby for 8days

the router again my have a power rating - so you can work that out
the router maybe 10W ish
so that would be 80p on its own

CH controller
lets say the 6w as thats a drayton from screwfix
so that 48p

8p+80p+48p
£1.36 = 17p a day based on 40p per KWh

fridge freezer - looking at various sites 250kWh in a year - various from F to A++
30p a day

50p a day would seem approx

you reckon 45p - but i dont know what kWh cost you are using

 

[Taylortwocities]

Don’t forget that you have to pay a daily standing charge, even if you don’t use any electricity.
Unless you have a pre-payment (coin/card) meter.

 

[ETAF]

Don’t forget that you have to pay a daily standing charge

yes, OP mentioned

My daily consumption was 70p per day. So that's about 45p if you allow for the standard daily fee.

not much you can do about the standing charge - just the consumption, hence i focused on the consumption

 

[clifford1]

"not sure if this an old wifes tail, but we keep the freezer as full as possible - often just with bread - as an empty freezer apparently uses more power"

I've always assumed that that means if the freezer is opened and shut in ordinary useage then each time a load of cold air spills out and new air has to be cooled. Whereas if full of bread there's not much space for air so you don't lose much in opening it.
If the freezer is unopened for a week then I don't see why it should need to keep turning on.

 

[Mottie]

Don’t forget that you have to pay a daily standing charge, even if you don’t use any electricity.
Unless you have a pre-payment (coin/card) meter.

They do have a daily charge too.

 

[big-all]

We went away for eight days and I turned off every electrical appliance apart from the fridge/freezer, the router (linked to alarm console, also left on of course), and a dab radio on standby that I had overlooked. I even turned off the boiler, but not the timer/controller which has to be kept energised. My daily consumption was 70p per day. So that's about 45p if you allow for the standard daily fee. Does that sound about right? So it costs £164 a year using practically nothing.

a 145w freezer running say 40% off the time is around 40p at 28p a unit

 

[JohnW2]

"not sure if this an old wifes tail, but we keep the freezer as full as possible - often just with bread - as an empty freezer apparently uses more power"

As you go on to say, it's certainly not a myth if the freezer is going to be opened. However, even if it's not opened ...

I've always assumed that that means if the freezer is opened and shut in ordinary useage then each time a load of cold air spills out and new air has to be cooled. Whereas if full of bread there's not much space for air so you don't lose much in opening it. If the freezer is unopened for a week then I don't see why it should need to keep turning on.

Since freezers are not perfectly insulated, there is always some loss of heat. Loss of a certain amount of heat will (because of differences in mass and thermal capacity) result in far more reduction in temp of air than it will of something 'solid and frozen' (like bread, but even more true of more heavy/'solid' foodstuffs, like meat etc.) - and the thermostat will turn the freezer on when temperature increases by a certain amount.

Hence, for a given amount of heat loss, the temp inside will rise much more rapidly if it is full of air than if it is full of frozen 'solid'/heavy things - hence thermostat will turn it on much more frequently.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

My daily consumption was 70p per day. So that's about 45p if you allow for the standard daily fee. Does that sound about right? So it costs £164 a year using practically nothing.

Well, as you indicate, if you used literally 'nothing' it would still cost you about £91 per year. The 45p/day of ';actual usage' is, at today's prices, not much more than 1 kWh - and it's probably unrealistic to expect any house to get much below that (particularly if it has fridges/freezers running), even when unoccupied

Kind Regards, John