Power bills

**Swoop** · 14th September 2018, 10:39

A workmate was wondering why his electricity meter was spinning around so fast, yet nothing was happening inside the house. He started delving into it...

"Ghost" electricity consumption was the issue. All those devices plugged in but on stand-by mode. He went around and switched off most of them at the wall and the result was far less electrical consumption.
How many other houses / workplaces are doing the same thing?

**Ocean1** · 14th September 2018, 13:36

Fuck, what an absolute train wreck of an article...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107...excess-profits

FFS don't read the comments!

**F5 Dave** · 14th September 2018, 13:38

Yeah quiescent power use is a drag and quite pointless.
We make battery powered stuff with soft on buttons so they have to be prepared to turn on with a push rather than a mechanical switch, yet sit there for weeks without draining the single battery.

Appliances do the same thing but plugged into mains they often just take the lazy implementation as access to power is infinite.
I'm hoping more manufacturers are paying attention to this.

**Ocean1** · 14th September 2018, 13:44

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Yeah quiescent power use is a drag and quite pointless.
We make battery powered stuff with soft on buttons so they have to be prepared to turn on with a push rather than a mechanical switch, yet sit there for weeks without draining the single battery.

Appliances do the same thing but plugged into mains they often just take the lazy implementation as access to power is infinite.
I'm hoping more manufacturers are paying attention to this.

Does good work there qualify for one of those energy efficient stickers on white-ware? Or does making the power cord no longer than two feet do the job?

**rambaldi** · 14th September 2018, 14:30

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Yeah quiescent power use is a drag and quite pointless.
We make battery powered stuff with soft on buttons so they have to be prepared to turn on with a push rather than a mechanical switch, yet sit there for weeks without draining the single battery.

Appliances do the same thing but plugged into mains they often just take the lazy implementation as access to power is infinite.
I'm hoping more manufacturers are paying attention to this.

It was a few years ago but the EU were meant to bring in some max power draw specs for appliances during their off time. Should have been in the order of milliwatts for TVs etc. so they actually turn off rather than just shut down the screen. I think by now it would have rolled out everywhere aside from the nock off stuff that has no intention of being sold in Europe. From my experience the most aggressive power hogs were set top boxes, used to have a TiVo when those were still a thing. You couldn't power it down, and pulling the plug meant it had a 10 minute startup when plugged back in next time.

**R650R** · 15th September 2018, 09:15

Originally Posted by Swoop

A workmate was wondering why his electricity meter was spinning around so fast, yet nothing was happening inside the house. He started delving into it...

"Ghost" electricity consumption was the issue. All those devices plugged in but on stand-by mode. He went around and switched off most of them at the wall and the result was far less electrical consumption.
How many other houses / workplaces are doing the same thing?

The only things I leave permanently plugged on is PC (its getting old and packs a fit) and alarm, fridge, internet router. Aside from reducing waste its also a fire safety thing, faulty electrical appliances are a high cause of house fires.
Also switch oven off at wall when food comes out or off element as a habit for both reasons above.
My power for one person is under $100 in summer and about 150 in winter, existing heatpump sadly no fireplace and gas for hot water which is working out at about $400 year on 9Kg bottles with Caltex loyalty scheme.

**R650R** · 15th September 2018, 09:25

Originally Posted by Ocean1

One thing I will add, is that I've found it beneficial to have multiple energy sources available. Ideally I'd like to also have gas and at least one form of solid fuel burner in a property, so you can juggle between them somewhat depending on price and availability. Like when I had the big place, when I was too busy to cut firewood then power/gas bills weren't a problem anyway, but if I had time then dropping a big gum tree and cutting it up saved heaps and was a great workout.

All of the extra systems do cost more to build though.

PS: I like pellet burners, but I don't like the price of the pellets, maybe there's a lack of suppliers, whatever, the price is higher than I think it should be. (Sound familiar?). One of my many pet plans is to make a pellet maker. They're not hard if You've got the gear. Could even sell them to pensioners with access to treewood wanting to supply their neighbours as a cash based pension stretching business.

I love a good fire and its great if you get wood for free and have the time. But also time factor in putting it away somewhere dry and then restocking fire/lounge every night etc. Im using my heat pump about 5 hrs a night on average during winter and for me the cost in $ alone is prob same as buying wood. My heatpump is quite an old Panasonic one about 5kw ish

**Oakie** · 15th September 2018, 09:41

Originally Posted by Swoop

A workmate was wondering why his electricity meter was spinning around so fast, yet nothing was happening inside the house. He started delving into it...

"Ghost" electricity consumption was the issue. All those devices plugged in but on stand-by mode. He went around and switched off most of them at the wall and the result was far less electrical consumption.
How many other houses / workplaces are doing the same thing?

Yep. Turn the microwave off when it's not being used and you'll save over $100 a year.

**MarkH** · 15th September 2018, 09:58

Originally Posted by Oakie

Yep. Turn the microwave off when it's not being used and you'll save over $100 a year.

*cough* *cough* bullshit! *cough* *cough*

I think you may have meant around $8 per year.
If your microwave burns over $100 on standby then it would be cheaper to buy a new one than keep using the crappy one you have.

Originally Posted by Swoop

A workmate was wondering why his electricity meter was spinning around so fast, yet nothing was happening inside the house. He started delving into it...

"Ghost" electricity consumption was the issue. All those devices plugged in but on stand-by mode. He went around and switched off most of them at the wall and the result was far less electrical consumption.
How many other houses / workplaces are doing the same thing?

No, it wasn't. It was his hot water cylinder, most likely. I have a fuck ton of shit in the house on standby, the electricity meter turns very slowly when nothing but the stuff on standby is using power. It probably adds up to a few bucks per month altogether for everything that is on standby, but it definitely would not cause the meter to spin rapidly.

**pritch** · 15th September 2018, 10:37

Originally Posted by Oakie

Yep. Turn the microwave off when it's not being used and you'll save over $100 a year.

Your microwave must be one of those that one of Trump's "best people", Kellyanne Conway said spies on its owners by filming and recording their conversations.

I too like to have options. I have a gas bottle I occasionally use for cooking, there is also a gas heater - when I get it fixed. A while back there were several days without water locally, both neighbours having kids had resorted to plan b - the river. I had not but was getting close.

**Swoop** · 15th September 2018, 12:43

Originally Posted by MarkH

No, it wasn't. It was his hot water cylinder, most likely.

He accounted for that as well, since he was a bit of a nerd...
"Spinning rapidly" = more than necessary and was obvious when he passed the meter box - which was on the main entrance to the house so difficult to miss seeing. Switching off the standby and plugged in items did make a difference.

**Honest Andy** · 15th September 2018, 18:02

What the hell are you old bastards talking about...?
Spinning meters????
Haven't seen one of those for years!

**russd7** · 16th September 2018, 21:24

out of curiosity, what are peoples fixed line charges and cents/kwh,promt payment discounts and locations, all very well saying your power bilss are only x amount bit it means sfa without knowing how much you are actually paying
we are paying 21.17c/kw, 0.19c/kw electricity levy and 233.69cents fixed daily charge, and we get a 10% prompt payment discount.

so for 738kw used cost us $207.03 for 31 days.

i did the whole whats my number thing a while ago and it was quite interesting, the company that it came up with was not the best deal that could be got. it actually was only about the fourth best after getting on the phone and ringing the suppliers. the difference ranged between $10.00 and $40.00 for the same bill.
I rang our current supplier at the time and informed them that i was shopping around and gave them the opportunity to come up with their best offer which at the time was still about $15.00 dearer for the same account and it wasn't until we had changed suppliers that we got a call from their customer retention team offering us a better deal.

**Black Knight** · 17th September 2018, 09:20

Jeez you are lucky-here in the Far North mine is 39.09cents/kwh-33.33cents day fixed charge and a bit for authority levy,all above plus GST-582 kwh over 30 days 273.93 less 10% PP