Selfsufficientish.com

Be careful..

I tested the Bye Bye Standby, and i wasn't too impressed.

Its made of plastic (and not recycled as far as i could see on the packaging). It has a remote control with batteries (and suggests that you don't put rechargeable batteries in it). Overall, the concept is a good one, but the practice was crap! I used it for 2 weeks before it went wrong...and i was't impressed with the plastic, and the plastic packaging.

So, be careful what sources you believe. SBB are trying to sell their product after all!

Our dishwasher/tumble dryer/washing machine always goes on at night. We have timer plugs on the washing machine and tumble dryer, but wouldn't trust one on the dishwasher- the plug for i is behind it and is set up do with the water element (don't know what the proper term for it is...or what it is that's different to any other plug point), and i'd be worried that a timer plug might negate the water thing already in place.

I make sure that i turn everything else off (except my computer, the fish's bubbles and filters etc.).

I think i'm a bit wasteful when it comes to electricity, bu i do try my best! As long as everyone does their best, then what more can we ask?

Why don't you turn your puter off Fee? That's the one thing - as well as the telly/video/satellite box thing that all get turned off properly as soon as we have finished watching/using them. I never leave my computer on standby as I read somewhere that's one of the highest power guzzling things to leave on! (plus it is unnecessary if I am not using it!).

So, I guess it could be cheaper to put my dishwasher on during the day when I can turn it off properly as soon as it has finished!

I have an Efergy energy meter, got it on Ebay for £37 including P&P (cheaper than other online sources). I love it, OH thinks its just another pester method for me BUT it has shown us that one of the biggest electricity 'criminals' in our house is all the stupid spotlights! We used to turn the lights on in the kitchen when it got dark & leave them until we went to bed, I thought turning them on & off was wasting more energy - how wrong I was! So now we just have a single low energy light bulb in a standard lamp in the lounge & that really pushes light into the whole room - rather than 3 x GU10 bulbs. I know we can replace them for LEDs or equivalent but until the Efergy has paid for itself I don't see the point. The other big energy 'sucker' was OH's computer on standby!

I'm often heard to shout "why are we at 500kw????" or "is that light on for a reason?".

Oh and not all washing machines use electricity when they are off, we have an LG model which is direct-driven & uses very little & none when cycle finishes.

Ratty

The power bill was on-line on 24th May and when I had checked the meter readings and it had been updated it seems that I have paid less for using more gas central heating and about the same electricity against the same period last year. Yes I had changed the tariff for a lower one in the third week of February this year.

I've just had a quarter when I thought I will use what I want to see how things run instead of worrying about the last unit on the bill.

I've looked at the graph on the energy tracker for last year period May to August and am now going to see what I can do to cut back a bit on that as the (gas) heating shouldn't be necessary in the summer. She says tempting fate.

I'm not sure about investing in an energy watching device as my worst habit is falling asleep at night with the radio on and waking up at silly hours to switch it off. As well as going off and leaving the mobile at home on charge and not switching off the digital radios at the wall (yep three of them scattered around the house).

No fancy lights here - all energy savers and then there are the street lights through front window whilst these warm up.

Personally I turn everything off as I go to bed.

"apparently even the missus"