bye bye standby?

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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 06 5:04 pm Post subject:

bernie wrote:

I was shocked when buying a new freezer in the summer how difficult it was to get an A rating chest freezer - we sort of came to the conclusion that perhaps it was the design but in looking around the shop could not believe how poorly rated many of the Americal style fridges were with ice makers in built into them - it looked like we were going backwards rather than forwards

Another case of style over substance. I don't think everyone should scrap old appliances but there should certainly be much tougher rules for selling new stuff.

I'm quite good with this, nothing is left on stand-by overnight.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28242
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 06 5:09 pm Post subject:
Inspired by this thread I found one transformer not connected to anything, which is a start. TV's/DVD/AMP do not get left on standby. But my big sin is that the office computers are on 24/7. My excuse for this is that I am also on standby 24/7 to deal with things and if an issue arises every minute counts.

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 06 11:09 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Got into the habit with the new house, a bit daft having LV lights but leaving the TV on all night.

I would love to see energy saving devices fitted to all homes before we start building nuclear plants. I bet you could give AAA appliances to every house in britain for less than the cost of one nuclear reactor

Sorry bit late on this one.

Swapping all fridges and freezers in the UK stops us having to build a new power station, swapping all the other white goods means we can shut one down.

It was shown on the Ch4 programme 'After the warming' and the site used to have all the info but it's gone now.

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 9:06 am Post subject:
...all very well, but the sudden massive step change in demand for new appliances would presumably involve a corresponding increase in industrial power consumption and transportation...

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 12:58 pm Post subject:

In 2004 I was paying �23 per month to Scottish Power for my leccie. When the end of year statement came in I found I was still owing them over �70 and they subsequently upped my payments to �29 per month. This peeed me off so much that I committed myself to turn off everything that at the plug when it wasn't in use. This included the cooker which we only left on because it had a clock on it. In addition to this we also endeavored to switch off lights behind us.
Anyways, to get to the point, my 2005 statement has revealed that we are now about �50 in CREDIT and my payments have been reduced to �19 per month. As SP always over estimate your expected usage I fully expect that, at the end of this year, I will be even more in credit and my payments will drop again. A small windfall me hopes!

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:18 pm Post subject:

Yep: we're constantly in credit with Scottish Power! And we switch everything off at the mains and unplug: Don't leave anything on standby. The only things permanently on are the fridge and freezers and the water filter (which we need as we're not on mains water).

By the way, and changing the subject slightly, I'm sure I once heard/read that it takes more power to make a photo-voltaic cell than the cell could ever generate. Does anyone know if that's true?

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:23 pm Post subject:

monkey1973 wrote:

Excellent story, we need more practical stuff like that to get the message home.

I'm letting NIE estimate my bill, Hopefully in six month's time we can show a huge discrepancy between actual and estimated.

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:25 pm Post subject:

Life cycles of renewable technologies are of interest to me, too - but it's damn hard to get reliable figures! I'd like to know the total life cycle impact of a wind turbine - they need enormous amounts of concrete and extensive civil engineering works to construct, and the payback time in terms of reduced emissions (if they do reduce emissions at all, that is - power stations on standby n' all that) must be fairly long.

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:27 pm Post subject:
Since we swapped our old boiler + hot water tank + imersion heater for a condensing combination boiler our bill is showing a rapidly-increasing credit, too. I was surprised, as gas and electricity prices have rocketed since we had it done, but we are still making a huge saving. Pretty good, that

puffedpride

Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 300
Location: bristol

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:31 pm Post subject:

Come on Mochyn. Surely you should be switching the fridge and freezer off at night!

We've improved re switching off lights and PC and TV standby, but video and DVD get 'knocked out' and require resetting, so we leave those on , which really bugs me.

I gather that standby modes have become enormously more efficient in recent years. I think it is the sheer number of them left on 24/7 nationwide that causes the impact.

Re lights, I read somewhere that it's worth switching off incandescent bulbs if it is for more than 3 seconds (ie always) but with the energy saving bulbs, switching off is only beneficial if the light is going to be off for at least 5 minutes. Can anyone confirm the truth of this?

Also - does anyone know how long a PC needs to be off for to make up for the extra energy usage in shutting down and starting up again?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45684
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 1:34 pm Post subject:

Shane wrote:

Reliable data? Wossat? Everyone's got their own agenda haven't they? I've found it extremely hard to make my mind up on various new technologies.

puffedpride

Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 300
Location: bristol

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 2:21 pm Post subject:
It ought to be simple though? CO2-free energy created in lifetime of turbine minus CO2-reliant energy embodied in construction, maintenance and decommissioning equals net gain or loss of CO2 emissions. Doesn't it? And surely that isn't too difficult to work out for a windmill!

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 2:23 pm Post subject:
Should be, but people are still arguing about whether concrete's a Good Thing or a Bad thing and wind turbines are more complex than that.

monkey1973

Joined: 17 Jan 2005
Posts: 683
Location: Bonnie scotland

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 2:44 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

Should be, but people are still arguing about whether concrete's a Good Thing or a Bad thing and wind turbines are more complex than that.

A large proportion of aggregates for concrete are now dredged from our surrounding seas as it cannot be quarried fast enough which is causing a bit of an environmental bruhaha.

puffedpride

Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 300
Location: bristol

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 06 2:54 pm Post subject:
Surely it could be worked out easily enough on a case by case basis? (due to different turbine types, improvements, locations presumably being the complication). Wonder how much extra concrete is required for windmills compared to coal-fire or nuclear producing same capacity......

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