centimes ? I use kWh for energy - but do I know…
0.22 euros, or 22 cents, but often still called centimes in France
I’ve left a hob on before now. Had turned all the way to 6, instead of 0. And this morning I checked my receipt at the self serve till in Asda and walked a few steps with the trolley, leaving my shopping behind. Ooops.
whooops
Oh well, we electrical engineers use kWh for energy.
That is cheap Lincs… ![]()
At first I thought 22 cents was about one fifth of a euro (and I thought that was cheap) but point 22 of a euro…
My Tariff as of 01/10/24 is
Standard unit rate = 24.74 pence per kWh.
Plus…
Standing charge = 74.74 pence per day.
Even if you don’t use a lot of electricity the standing charge soon mounts up.
I never leave my TV on standby after Mrs Fox and me leave the house, or go to bed Susan.
However, although it’s a smart TV, it’s not connected to the internet, and it’s never used as a smart TV.
I never leave any chargers switched on either when we go out.
I’m not really bothered about the energy usage, more about the fire risk…
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While I was in Canberra my son and DiL used my house for a night, they left a fan and a light running.
I do have lights on timers and a modern light uses bugger all electricity. An 11watt LED bulb can run for nearly four days before it uses 33c of electricity ((ie 1kWh). The fan is a different matter.
Yeah, Mrs Fox moans about me leaving lights on wasting money when they are all LED’s and use hardly any power at all…
However, Mrs Fox boils the kettle several times a day and forgets to make a drink with the contents…She also leaves her iron plugged in for long periods of down time, and you can never visit our house without the sound of the washing machine humming away in the background…
Save money she says… ![]()
The only thing I leave on when I leave the house is the refrigerator.
Everything else is turned off at the power-point.
I have no electric clocks.
Ha Ha I had to laugh, my wives were exactly the same.
Anything that involves heating tends to use more electricity than anything else - kettles, space/fan heaters and stoves particularly. Motors are probably next, Washing machines, fans etc, close behind are probably TVs,computers and the like - finally lights.
The only exception are incandescent lights and those old halogen lights but who has any of them these days?
I must admit I am not fussy about turning things off at the power point, I like the fact that the TV comes on instantly when left powered up. I also have three NASs rrunning all the time too. However my electric bill is only $220 to $250 a quarter (£110 to £225) which I don’t think is too bad. The next bill will be a bit higher because I ran the fan heater more than usual this winter but it won’t be unaffordable (and that is the key).
I think many of us might be guilty of boiling up more water than we need in the kettle.
LED lighting is great. Might be able to save a bit of electricity by turning them off but leaving them on not as bad as when light bulbs were anything from 25w to 150w.
My Swedish sister in law back in the 1960s used to leave the lights on all the time (it drove me up the wall in the UK).
This was in the days of incandescent bulbs, these bulbs used to suffer from thermal shock when they were turned on or off. Apparently in Sweden with their hydroelectric power using the electricity was cheaper than buying new bulbs because turning them on and off shortened their life
I’ve been doing this for years. These days you have smart hotplates that can guess if the pot isn’t there. Although sometimes that can be annoying if you’re cooking.
My dad used to go around the house back in the 70s turning off any lights if there was nobody in the room. In those days every penny counted. Of course despite grumbling in those days, I do the same because the wasting electricity message becomes so ingrained.
I had an ‘amusing’ experience with my late mother once, regarding leaving a tap running.
For some reason, she used to leave her own kitchen tap running for a long time; I never understood why, and she wouldn’t explain. If I turned it off, she’d turn it on again! She was on the old rateable value payment method for water, so she didn’t care. ![]()
Anyway, she came to stay with me one Christmas, and I went out for about three hours, and when I got back, my kitchen tap was running at full blast! I am on a meter! ![]()
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I was livid, absolutely livid, and I told her in no uncertain terms what she had now cost me in extra water charges.
She did offer me the money, and I took it, to jolly well teach her a lesson!
Honestly, it felt like the parent/child roles had reversed! ![]()
Did your mother ever give a reason for her unusual behaviour?
No, never! (She was a very impatient person, and found it hard to cope with questions, or perceived criticism).
Sometimes it was her way of washing a cup, say, that she’d just been drinking out of, but not always.
Although she hating spending money, because the water rates didn’t vary with her water usage, she wasn’t concerned at all, but I think I drummed the point home when she wasted mine! ![]()
I may be getting a water meter in the near future (had a letter saying it could be in the pipeline) so I’ve started rationing it more. Getting myself ready.
Research shows me that residents of Perth started to be charged for water use in 1978.
I have been paying for water used since 1992.