Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Green Tips: Saving Energy And Saving Money


We are thrilled to be working with HotVouchers.com to bring you weekly green tips. You can also see this first post over on their blog
The standard way a utility company works is through 3 pricing bands that charges a base level charge for your first 1000 kwh, a second cheaper rate for your additional usage per month and then an extremely discounted rate for your night-time energy use (normally 10pm to 8am) which can be up to 5 times lower than your base level charge. Each utility supplier is different and they all have their own slightly different versions, however they all follow the general principle.
So if we look at EDF, for example, and look at their charges for a standard user, it looks something like this, for our area of Southwest London: • 20.62p for the first 1000kwh (Band A) • 12.37p for every additional kwh • 4.94p during night-time hours
So what does this mean exactly and how do I know how much I’m saving? Because all appliances are a bit different we won’t be able to tell you exactly how much you can however we can give you a rough estimate:
The average dishwasher uses approximately 335 kwh per year, meaning that if you use it regularly during the day, you’re paying roughly £69 per year on dishwashing (335kwh X 20.62 p/kwh = £69.09). If however, you decided to run that at night, putting the cycle on as you were going to bed, it would only cost £16.55 per year (335kwh X 4.94 p/kwh = £16.55). That’s £53 in savings just on the dishwasher alone and this is assuming your dishwasher is brand new. If you have a dishwasher from 10 years ago, it will be at least double the energy consumption, and also double the energy cost i.e. £140 to run the dishwasher at peak times, or £32 to run at off peak for the year.
Let’s look at one of the most horrendous culprits – the electric shower pump. A standard electric shower pump can average a yearly usage of roughly 4900kwh – especially if you have teenagers or other shower enthusiasts in your household. You and your loved ones could be costing approx £1000 per year if you shower during normal daily hours (4900kwh X 20.62p/kwh = £1010.38). If you switched to early morning or evening then you could save up to £700 per year. You don’t even have to have a discount or voucher to help you save significant money!
We hope this brief introduction has helped to highlight the large difference that understanding peak and off-peak energy premiums can have on your utility bills and how small changes in your daily habits can add up to large rewards in your wallet.

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