Energy Cost Saving Tips

Energy Crunch? Daily Beagle is here to help!

Aug 25, 2022

Unlike other news sources, we won’t be making out-of-touch suggestions like other media outlets do, like ‘eat less caviar’, or ‘just cease eating’.

Understand What Consumes The Most Energy

Articles typically suggesting checking your energy meter, but that’s painstaking and slow. A much easier way is understanding what consumes the most energy.

The electrical items in your household have what is known as a wattage rating. This is how much energy, roughly, the device consumes (electricians might be angry at the oversimplification but this is meant as a general rule).

To find devices that consume the most power, look for the devices with the highest wattage that are on for the longest time. Most devices will have a label indicating wattage on the back or underneath of a device, or maybe on the power adapter itself. Some, like cookers, won’t specify, but you can usually hint it consumes more power (for example, in the UK, cookers are on 500 volt mainlines, which mean they already consume double as much power as other devices).

You will always want to reduce the usage of a higher wattage device first, even if it is used for less time compared to lower wattage devices, as often their power usage will dwarf that of lower wattage devices.

Understanding Wattage

Wattage is simply volts multiplied by amps. So, if my laptop is 19 volts at 3 amps, to work out the wattage is 19 times 3, which comes to 58 watts. In contrast, my kettle on the underneath has a maximum wattage of 2200 watts.

Therefore, I can save more energy if I address the kettle first, even if the kettle only uses power for several minutes, because the 2200 watts is roughly equal to 38 minutes of run-time on a laptop (you can work this out by dividing the 2200 watts by the 58 watts).

In your household, you may also encounter devices that say ‘kW’.

‘kW’ is kilo-watts. A kilo basically means ‘a thousand’, so whatever number you see, you have to multiply by a thousand to get the wattage. So if your water heater is 3 kW, then it would be 3 times 1000, meaning it is 3000 watts. It is very unlikely a house will have a MW (mega-watt) installation, so it won’t be covered here for simplicity (mega just means a 1000 times a 1000, so 3 MW would be 3 times 1000 times 1000, or 3,000,000).

Once You Understand Wattage, Examine Device Labels

Disclaimer: Do not open up or take apart any devices. Any electrical risks you take are your own and The Daily Beagle takes no responsibility.

Nearly all devices will have a label indicating wattage, either on the box, instruction manual, underneath of the device (which can be dangerous on some heavier or high power devices, so any risks you take are your own), on the back of devices, or on the adapters. Some devices may not say wattage, but only volts and amps, but you can work out wattage above.

For dangerous, high powered devices usually without any label, it is better to identify the model online, or to take a rough average typical usage for a device from the same era (as newer models are likely to be more efficient).

Your goal in examination is form a hierarchy of highest energy use to least energy use of devices. This doesn’t need to be formal or written down, but a rough idea in your head.

Once you have a descending order of highest to lowest, work out which devices you use the most. These will be the ones you should tackle first.

Switch Off, Upgrade, Use Less, Make Efficient, Replace

Often it is a fallacy by the “eat the bugs” globalist crowd that you need to ‘go without’ and suffer, however this is a concept made by people with no real world experience.

Typically you can optimise what you’re already doing such habits don’t really need to be changed. Indeed, often people change habits for a “false economy” that actually costs them more in the long term.

These are the main approaches The Daily Beagle has found to reducing your energy costs:

Switch Off - Stop using the device entirely. Extreme, but effective.
Upgrade - Find a higher energy efficiency device and upgrade it so it is using less power
Use Less - Find a way to use the device less, or use less power
Make Efficient - Find ways to make usage of the device more efficient
Replace - Find an alternative method or approach that replaces the device entirely

Some of these might be combinations, as an extreme example, you might switch off your TV and replace it with boardgames, as opposed to just switching it off.

Using the TV as as example for these:

Switch Off - You stop using the TV altogether
Upgrade - You find a newer TV that consumes less power
Use Less - You reduce the size of your TV so it consumes less power, or use it for fewer hours; Or you purchase a smaller, lower energy portable TV that supplants the main one for most of the day.
Make Efficient - You have more people share your TV at the same time; you adjust the brightness and visual settings to work out a lower power consumption rate you’re comfortable with
Replace - You use a lower power laptop instead of a TV

Following these steps you can often find approaches for nearly everything that doesn’t sacrifice living standards.

Beware The False Economy Trap

The biggest mistake you can make costs wise is falling for the common economic trap of thinking you need to pay ridiculous amounts of cash to either upgrade an already relatively efficient device, or to buy quirky devices that ultimately cost more than they save.

Generally speaking, the more you’re paying out for a replacement upgrade, the less likely it is actually worth it. The best energy saving tips cost zero, or very little as they are slight changes to habits. You should also consider regularly checking second hand sites and waiting for good deal opportunities, as it may be you only need a newer device, not the newest one, in order to improve efficiency.

Remember to also sell your older device, so you can get some money back from it. Don’t expect a lot of cash for very old devices. Alternatively, if you have storage space, you may want to cover it and store it away as a backup device in case the new one fails.

Daily Beagle Suggestions

Disclaimer: Now you should speak with an electrician or other professional before undertaking any suggestions here, as your electrical setup and installation is likely different to ours. The Daily Beagle writes with the UK electrical system in-mind; US and other readers may have a different configuration, hence you should consult with a electrician familiar with your setup.

Move Power Usage To Lower Rates

One of the easiest things people can do is move or shift their power usage to lower rates. On some billing approaches, the night rate is cheaper. You should check what your rates are for day and night and shift power usage to those times.

Occasionally Switch Off The Water Heater (Electric Only)

Electric water heaters consume power in the kilo-watts range. Often electric water heaters will have a switch. If you’re okay going without the hot water tap on some days, something you could do is set up specific shower days, where you turn on the water heater in advance, and switch it off after.

Obviously, this suggestion doesn’t apply if you already use a solar heating system for your hot water or some other energy harvesting device that can power it. Water consumes a lot of power to heat, as water can absorb a lot of heat.

This isn’t some far-off notion either. Adopting this strategy, my own family reduced their night rate usage to 1/3rd of what it once was.

Switch Convection Hobs To Induction Hobs

You don’t need to buy an entire expensive induction hob top cooker, which is basically an oven with induction hobs slapped on top, as you can get standalone induction hobs. You may be able to find second hand induction hobs online (be sure to get them tested for safety), although they’re already within affordability range.

Induction hobs heat up pans faster, are far easier to clean (read: require far less expensive cleaning materials saving money) as they don’t burn food to the surface, and can work from a power outlet. Some even will beep and stop powering if they detect the saucepan is absent from the surface, meaning improved safety features.

The induction hobs in my family’s case reduced the day power usage by 1/8th, which might not seem impressive, but it is a 1/8th reduction that came with improvements to life quality.

The only downsides to induction hobs is the technology is still quite new, and they (all models) tend to engage in a sort of binary heating, where the hob is either ‘on’ or ‘off’, which means you will need to adapt to a new style of cooking. You will want to attend them as they can heat water in pans absurdly fast. They’re rated as being 90% efficient, compared to convection hobs 70% efficiency.

Not All Kettles Are Created Equal

This might blow some minds, but did you know different kettles that boil the same amount of water, don’t use the same amount of power? The design of the kettle itself can have a huge impact as to the efficiency of heating.

If you check the wattage of different models and brands, you will often find the wattage range wildly varies. A wattage range is basically something like: 1700-2200w.

This means, the kettle takes 1700 watts minimum and consumes 2200 watts maximum, with the variance depending on how much water the kettle has in it. If you check different kettles, you will find the wattage range varies a lot.

Those expensive glass-style kettles likely consume more power (I’ve seen 3000 watts) than the cheaper, better insulated store brand ones (the lowest I’ve seen is 1700-2200 watts). So not only can you save money buying cheaper kettles, but you can save money buying cheaper kettles. Be sure to check and compare the wattage range of kettles in various stores.

Don’t bother switching to lower wattage travel kettles unless you live alone and can carefully manage your usage, as for more than one person travel kettles are false economy. Their 500 watt ratings might appeal, but you will find yourself waiting for longer (usually double the time of a bigger kettle), and boiling more often as their small amounts of water do not suffice. They also tend to burn out or require replacement sooner as they’re boiled more often in a smaller frame.

Re-use Clothes

Reducing the power usage of a washing machine isn’t really viable. They are very energy intensive devices, are essential to basic living, and sure you could downgrade to a lower capacity machine (requiring more washes) or a higher capacity machine (requiring more power), but your wash cycle savings won’t be found in the machine itself.

Instead, if you’re not going outside anywhere, and thus won’t be at risk of committing any social faux pas, consider re-using unwashed clothes - the clean, relatively dry, unsoiled ones, obviously - as a way to reduce the number of washes you’re doing.

Switch Lightbulbs To LEDs

Energy saving lightbulb technology has come a long way since the earlier days, and LEDs not only give out greater brightness (always check the lumens rating to determine brightness), but also last much longer. They don’t have to be the intrusive ‘smart’ LEDs either, dumb LEDs do just fine.

The house I’m in currently has all the lightbulbs replaced with LEDs that have been around for so long the store that sold them has been bought out by another firm. These were store brand LEDs, not any fancy, expensive corporate monopoly type.

LEDs also produce, over all, far less heat (although they are not heat free), so if you live in a region that deals with a lot of heat, you might want to consider switching as a way to reduce heat output during summer as well, which in turn helps to lower air conditioning usage.

Computers

Switch Desktop PCs For A Laptop

For regular computer users, the most power intensive device is likely your desktop PC. Now, this change doesn’t have to be permanent or complete - you can own both a desktop PC and a laptop - what you need to do is turn off the desktop PC for a period of time and use your laptop instead.

A desktop PC can consume a variable amount of watts, depending on configuration, power draw and other factors. Typically power usage ranges between 300 to 600 watts. A laptop, for contrast - even factoring in an energy intensive gaming laptop - can consume up to 130 watts. One third the power. Typically most laptops draw 90 watts or less. You don’t even need a modern laptop for these kinds of savings.

Gamers can take this step further, and switch their PCs for a handheld games console, such as a Nintendo Switch. Obviously this requires you don’t use the energy intensive TV to make a power saving.

Switch Windows For Linux On Older Laptops

Windows is a CPU power hog, if any user can testify to their laggy, update-intrusive experience. There is a way to fight back, however! Linux, as a free Operating System, can run efficiently on most devices, and works well on older laptops.

In-fact, this article is being written on a 2013, second hand laptop, running a modern copy of Ubuntu. It works brilliantly well for work and browsing purposes. Sure, it isn’t as ideal for gaming, but that’s what portable games consoles are for.

This OS switch can half the CPU - and thus power usage - on your laptop. Even if you absolutely must have Windows, you can always opt for a dual-boot option, where you install two OSes to the same device, allowing you to switch between the two. My first foray into Linux involved dual booting, until I got so tired of Window’s garbage I switched full time.

Reduce The Backlight Brightness

A good energy saving trick for laptops, monitors and TVs in general that costs nothing, is to reduce the backlight brightness slightly (don’t confuse this with colour brightness, which changes the appearance on-screen but not the actual lighting).

Use Earphones Instead Of Speakers

Speakers consume a lot of power to play noise in general, a lot more power than compared to earphones. One way you can reduce energy usage on a laptop or handheld games console is to use earphones. Plus it is good etiquette.

A similar trick that appears to work for me, is turning off speaker audio when there isn’t anything to hear. It seems even if the speakers aren’t playing anything, power is still being sent to them by the audio system unless the volume is turned off.

Re-use Cooking Water

Instead of boiling the kettle in order to make things like gravy, consider using the boiled water from the peas or potatoes in your saucepan. If the water is too cold, you can always microwave it for a few seconds (either before or after adding it to EG gravy), which will always be more efficient than the kettle as microwaves directly heat water molecles, and seconds is shorter than minutes.

Encourage Children To Play With Non-Electric Toys

One way parents can save power is to encourage children who aren’t so concerned with modern gadgets, to play with toys that don’t use any electricity. A great example is Lego, which still amazingly holds appeal in the modern era.

Parents will want to avoid splashing cash on expensive Lego sets (which are largely Lego just paying the intellectual property owners money), and instead look online at second hand sites for what are known as ‘bags of Lego’, where a random assortment of Lego pieces are thrown into transparent plastic bags and sold online.

Be sure to always wash and clean the Lego pieces before giving them to your child. Make sure the bricks are age-appropriate for your child. Never give small bricks to young children who can swallow them and hurt themselves (Duplo blocks are designed for younger children).

Also do your homework and avoid any cheap knockoffs or fakes, as these can ruin the experience as the lower quality is less enjoyable.

Parents can then create a ‘Lego chest’ or ‘Lego box’, which is a giant plastic container where they pour out the assortment of Lego bricks into the container for them to play with. Try to get a diverse assortment of Lego bricks, so not just classic pieces, but large flat pieces, technical pieces, Lego characters and more.

The enjoyment can last for years, and once you’ve had your time with the Lego pieces, you can bag them up into plastic transparent bags and sell them on to other parents to enjoy with their children. Be sure to clean them first in a soapy bath (if they don’t contain any metal or other parts that can be corroded).

Lego isn’t the only non-electric toy example, but it is one of the most popular. Don’t force it on them if they don’t enjoy it, as habit changes should be voluntary. You’re not the Deep State, after all.

Look Second Hand For Upgrades

It is not necessary for you to buy the newest upgrades to make savings, even a slightly newer, more efficient device can make savings. You’ll want to check places like Gumtree, Craigslist, eBay and Freecycle for second hand deals.

You can then use these upgrades to reduce energy usage, downsize, or even use the second hand websites to sell your less effficient technology to others!

Our list here isn’t exhaustive, and hopefully it serves as inspiration for other ideas on how you can save either money, energy or both. Don’t let the Deep State drive you out of pocket!

Got any of your own energy or cost saving tips?

The Daily Beagle