The Big Switch Off...to Save Energy

Lounge
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We’ve recently boght one of these, it’s amazing ticking over at 400 watts which means that we can run on solar power most of the time which means we can dry towels in there all the time without feeling too guilty as we were fed up with hard towels when line dried. The previous model dre 2.5KW so with a small (3KW) solar system it couldn’t feed it completely unless the weather was amazing and then we’d line dry anyway.

We chose this model as it works down to 5c ambient temperature and most models state a minimum of 15c to work properly and we house ours in a garage which isn’t attached to the house unlike yours so gets colder.

Have you ‘stress tested’ the minumum temperature requirements yet? We bought ours early spring so have only gone down to 5-6c and it worked very well indeed so we’re hopeful we can use it in winter unless it’s really ‘brass monkey’ weather.

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It’s been fine for about three years. We have our boiler in the garage, which helps stop it getting too cold. I didn’t check the minimum temperature requirement, but nothing’s gone wrong.

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Ours is in (insulated) utility room, with ventilation as part of house heat recovery system, so great for clothes drying. Tumble drier is a basic machine, but very rarely used, only fir something unexpectedly urgent or for Goretex waterproofs.

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Intense. :scream:

IMG_2519

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Surely these don’t get wet? :thinking:

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The OP should get rid of that planet killing Naim. Unless they replace it with this, SHAME ON YOU!

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Why the picture? This thread is far more interesting than 90% of those about hifi. Maybe you have an excellent contribution to make.

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That’s good to know, I expect your garage has dropped below the minimum at some point.

The Samsung was the only model I identified that would work in cold temperatures which has been proven to work so far.

It was amazing last week, we returned from a trip to Norway and made use of a cheap Octopus tracker day (11p per unit!) and did all the washing in one day, tumble drying some clothes as we ran out of pegs and room on the line! The load was large and completed very quickly, better than the old inefficient model and ran completely off the solar as it was a warm and sunny day.

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The meter is modern digital, so I guess reliable. The old spinning dial electric meter and the gas meter were it original fittings put in when the house was built in the 1930’s according to date codes in the instruments, and before anyone asks, the gasmeter has been replaced with another perhaps 10 years ago.

It was the dogwalkers in the park, and the subsequent comparison of electric energy bills that prompted this episode of self examination…
How could we be using so much electricity?
No Naim/Rega fried eggs here…

I was not getting on anyone’s case here about any moral duty.

I was suggesting how unfair the energy market system is in the UK, where next door neighbors may pay different costs for their energy, and that such a basic need for society to function, it seems that folk should all pay the same. This system in the UK particularly penalises poorer folk who may not have the means to constantly switch energy suppliers. I was suggesting that basic essential services for folk to function in society should pay the same costs, energy and water for example, and I would add that these costs should be affordable for the poorest folk. Maybe I miss led you with the example I gave for luxury items, I was trying to show that a nice hifi (as I have) is not essential for basic living needs for folk in society.

I was not referring to any moral duty about energy use for a household…

I was referring to a moral duty that may be expected from the energy supply market to deliver a fair service for all folk, much as has been discussed here regarding the water industry, where company policy may be questionable, also discussed here previously.

No…
The high figure is consistent over weeks, and is higher in the winter months!!

The lower week will be confirmed on Monday when we take the next reading.

If you were not lucky enough to have the boiler in the garage, you could always use a 180w tube heater to keep the chill away!!

Here there is no tumble dryer, no solar (house roof faces wrong ways), no heat pump systems, 30 year boiler on the kitchen wall, hardly any insulation, and today a water leak further along in the road…I am such a looser…

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Potentially air/line drying, but I hated the smell of ones other family members didn’t react to and we’ve not used conditioner for years - fairly sure we got soft towels from the tumble dryer without using conditioner until we largely stopped using it when prices went up - it’s dead at the moment as the ovrheat thermostat seems to be faulty as it won’t warm up. A new heating assembly isn’t that expensive to buy but there are dozens of screws which are a faff to remove to access it on the back.

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Ha ha. We do have a 40W tube heater in the airing cupboard, which I put in when we had our cylinder removed. It’s really most odd that turning off a couple of things saved so much power, as from the numbers it looks as if you’ve saved over 400w of continuous power. That’s really going something.

I don’t disagree about the price of power, but deregulation all those years ago put an end to that. And now, most new entrants have gone bust, so the so-called competition isn’t achieving every much at all. Not that it ever did, really.

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It’s ages since I looked at heat pump dryers - have they always had that hybrid option or is it an evolution of the design? Long drying times is what really put me off with early models but maybe that was just standard specs being quoted for programmes you might not use in practice.

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Snazzy design - could double as an ear trumpet too.

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!

Tumble drying is the recommended conclusion to washing.

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Ours is 3 years old so the hybrid option has been there for a while.

Drying times are a bit longer but I simply load the dryer, set it going and empty it later. Nothing gets creased and I don’t do ironing anyway :grinning:

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Just what I need for the deafness than…

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So was that tube heater constantly on or does it have some kind of thermostat fro ambient temperature?

I honestly wonder if it might have been using more than the 180W it’s rated at - that’s where an adapter socket measuring consumption would be really useful as you could get a fairly accurate picture of consumption within seconds for devices which are constantly on or over hours/days if they use variable power over cycles or adjust performance to temperature etc.

Something like this is all you need:

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A tenner or less at Amazon or as mentioned earlier probably at B&Q or similar.

You can usually enter the electricity unit price so it will show actual cost or consumption figures at the touch of a button.

You’d probably get a SmartSocket which could do timed switching as well as monitor usage live/over time for marginally more if you were interested in monitoring on a Smartphone.

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Haha. I was insinuating that someone might be getting on your case :grinning:

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I detest ironing.

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@feeling_zen @bruss

Do you use the baking soda or white wine vinegar in the washing machine?

Or do you go for a long soak in the sink , and then a normal wash (with no conditioner) in the washing machine ?