Parents' £80 Elec. bill p.m, surely too much?Emersion heater maybe?

[bankhater10]

Hi dx, please please dont hate me for this but someone was trying to tell me yesterday that they found the fridge/freezer plugs a waste of money as they dont work, that is why they are discontinued? (im sure he's wrong but i thought i mention it)!

[dx100uk]

certainly on the older not so envir freindly ones they make a hell of a diff.

if the app is of the modern era then no they won't as the tech is already inc inside the fridge/freezer.

 

i made this suggestion because i assumed they would be old [+10yr] appliances and not be very good on their rating.

 

i had a relative that processed deer, he had 15 giant chest freezers from the 1980's

 

his bill was in the £1000's per quarter

 

we fitted them to every freezer and his bill almost halved.

 

dx

[bankhater10]

absolutely brilliant!!! Thank you so much, and yes you are quite right-the chest freezer is over 10years old! Thank you so much!!

[bankhater10]

Well i suppose you could call my visit yesterday a partial success as i got my Mum to follow a friend's advice and explain to Scottish Power that being as my Dad has few health problems with his back that a direct-debit meter (i cant think of the proper name for it) would benefit him more than the pre-payment meter, they waived the £150 fee, which was absolutely brilliant, and all they would have to pay is the charge of £45 the company charges them to uninstall it! Luckily/coincidentally, my parents had a credit built up of £45ish (due to the social tariff refunds at certain intervals) so that takes care of that! They will be installing the new meter on September 10th i believe! Brilliant!! Im so happy at that step!!

 

The next bit wasn't so good My mum explained that she washes their bedsheets two to three times per week because, apparently, my dad 'sweats a lot', i didn't know this! I asked her how many spare changes of the bed sheets (top and bottom) and i think she said two. I suggested that if she had four then she could wash the 'dirty' ones in one go instead of the (usually) two to three times per week but she wasn't very keen on this idea!! I will try her again!

 

On the fridge-freezer front, i can confirm that there is a 5ft one in the house which will be replaced soon, a big chest freezer stored more-or-less outside with only a roof and one side covered. My dad has a fridge-freezer and a small freezer in his shed!

However, i have my new plug-in monitor in the extension lead for my dad's two appliances and, wait for it.....from 8pm yesterday to 8pm tonight it had used a large 5 KWH!!! That's at least 65p per day!!

Phew!! That'll add up eh? £19.50 per month!!!

[dx100uk]

one wonders why they need so many freezers.....

 

dx

[bankhater10]

Well, the fridge-freezer in the house (which is being replaced) is for milk, cheese, bacon, salad+the frozen meats/meals(v. small freezer compartment), the one chest freezer in the shed is for loaves, meat, meals, chips etc. My dad's fridge-freezer is for food for the lots of dogs/ferrets etc+his chest freezer is for the amount of rabbits/hares/pheasants for the ferrets.

ideally i think my dad could manage with one large fridge-freezer that has a particularly large freezer compartment! The reason my mum is keen to replace her fridge-freezer is that it is on the way out so that's kind of good news!

[bankhater10]

I suppose a victory of sorts has been made with the two facts:

1, That the pre-payment meter is now going to be replaced with a normal meter thus meaning they wont be stuck with the pre-payment meter's more expensive standing charge of 17.29p per day

2, Their useage for the last 14 days has come to 255Kwh whereas it used to be 475Kwh (using the fact that their 12 month useage was 12366Kwh divided by 52= 237Kwh multiplied by 2= 475Kwh)

 

You may be interested to find that my dad's fridge-freezer+small freezer have used a total of 8.8Kwh in 48 hours so, going on that, i suppose you could say that works out to 132Kwh per month. Bearing in mind that their monthly useage will be 510Kwh that would mean those two appliances use 25% of their monthly Kwh!!

 

Ps- i do realise that a reading after 48 hours isn't a fair indicator but im just going on what i have at the moment!

[dx100uk]

might as awell buy the ferrets food fresh as its costing more to freeze it.

 

i take it the ruddy things are not set to 10 are they?

 

turn them both down to 1 they wont know any difff...they're dead [i mean the stuff inside...!!!]

 

dx

[bankhater10]

Ha ha ha, that did make me laugh quite a bit!! :p

Yes, good thinking there, i shall certainly do that, i also think im going to take the plunge+buy one of those plugs you mentioned that i've been threatening to buy for ages on here!!

I now have my 72hours worth of readings of my dad's fridge-freezer and small freezer so i have a rough idea of how much they bloody use so now the trusty monitor is going on my mum's fridge-freezer in the house, i know it is going to be replaced soon but i am curious to know how much that sod uses before it gets replaced with a nice shiny new (Argos-branded) one. I'll bet it's a guzzler!!

[dx100uk]

when they are turned down & used in conjunction with one of those pulser plugs, they can be quite eco.

but you also have to 'educate' the users too, its no good putting hot or warm stuff in 'em.

 

my uncle used to boil up dixie cans of liver/kidney etc etc and almost put is straight in.....doh!

 

dx

[bankhater10]

Hello again!

I was hoping i could ask for a wee bit of help?

Im looking for a new fridge for my mum, i have found quite a few on the Argos website that has wonderful options to filter out ones you need and do not need such as A/A+/A++ rated, price range etc but unfortunately i cant seem to locate any that have ice boxes in.

Now i have learned that the term 'Larder fridge' means no ice box but i have yet to find any with ice boxes in under the search of 'fridge'! The only other term usable is 'fridge freezer' which is not what i want as my mum is sticking with her chest freezer that uses 1kwh per day (as opposed the her fridge that uses 2.5kwh per day!)

 

Ps- The Which website offers plenty of fridges with and without ice boxes but, rather annoyingly, uses cost in pounds per year instead of kwh per year!

[Surfer01]

Apply through Southern electric for a free fridge or subscribe tot eh weekly newsletter from moneysavingexpert. The fridge is free and it si a decent size fridge. It is a like for like exchange. If it is only a fridge exchange is a frdige. If fridge freezer exchnage is fridge freezer. Your folks should qualify if they are on pension and another benefit.

[bankhater10]

Hi everyone, just an update as we have nearly come to the end of the (very long) line:

My mum's current fridge uses 880kwh per year, this is being replaced on Wednesday with a fridge-freezer that uses a quoted 260kwh.

This should bring the weekly usage down by around 11 kwh.

 

Next i believe that my dad is thinking of replacing his fridge-freezer and small chest freezer (1460 kwh per year) with a a single fridge-freezer that uses a quoted 260 kwh per year.

This should bring the weekly usage down a further 23 kwh!!

Also, i've just signed them up to EDF which should change their current monthly bill of £65 to £52!! (thanks to Surfer01 but EDF worked out better on the whole! Appreciate the advice though!!)

 

Now then, did i read something about a power saving plug for Desktop computers somewhere please?

[nottslad]

have a look at

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Energy_saving_devices.html?adnetwork=wg

and

https://www.eonshop.co.uk/default.aspx

 

for energy saving devices including the powerdown