What Preps are you doing this week? Part 9

[rik_uk3]

I stick with paraffin pressure stoves and lamps, I've had Coleman and 'petrol' based stoves but always very wary of them; also a big fan of Trangia/alcohol stoves, so simple, foolproof.

On duty tonight for a brew is a German made Turm 144 (alcohol for the stove newbies)





And some light (and heat) from a 1957 British Army Vapalux

[Rusty74]

blankets and throws iv been picking up,got my mother on the case who volunteers in a charity shop,so she has got us a fair few,picked up another ex army arctic sleeping bag today for a fiver so thats gone into the camping stash,not like the house gets cold what with the log burners and rayburn but i always say "better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it"

[Medusa]

I stick with paraffin pressure stoves and lamps, I've had Coleman and 'petrol' based stoves but always very wary of them; also a big fan of Trangia/alcohol stoves, so simple, foolproof.

On duty tonight for a brew is a German made Turm 144 (alcohol for the stove newbies)





And some light (and heat) from a 1957 British Army Vapalux

Love your set up and photos, especially the Vapalux, that lamp looks very warm and comforting.

[steptoe]

@richard yes them coleman ones can be a nightmare lucky my mate had put one on in a bivvy while we got up for a wee he shouted me around 3 am for a brew and said you coming over so we both came out of out bivvies and walked over and just as we did woof his bivvy went up , the coleman must have sprung a leak we had no chance of putting it out so luck he was not inside .
There was someone else used a coleman heater and the same thing happend the seal let go and sprayed petrol like a mist and caused a fireball , that is why i am not a fan of pressurised , i like the little chalwyn stove it might be slower but i go on the side of safe , i am very awary with gas to i do use them but i double check hoses and seals all the time before switching on , it took me ages to use a gas bbq i only used one because it was a present off the wife so i gave it a go , again if the worst happens i i can take it in the garage and cook a meal in there ,but we do have a nice built in bbq area with roof anda nice big chimea that throws out heat and while burning rubbish wood in there i can do a bbq meal lol .

I do like the coleman lamps but again i am fussy on the seals i took my mates one camping once and i spent more time checking seals and looking for leaks lol .

[jennyjj01]

Last night, I glanced at the Smart Meter and it was sat showing about 400W being consumed.... But we'd switched most things off for the night, so that troubled me.

So this morning, I did a deep dive analysis of what's just ticking over, using up the 'Leccy.

Note 400W burning constantly costs about 11p an hour or £2.50 per day

It turns out that our daily spend of about £5 - £6 includes around 350 - 400W ( £2 ) of 'Always on' usage.

WHAT The Hell !

I'd thought the expense was Washer/ Drier/ Cooker, and here I was burning half my electricity in my sleep.

So. DEEP Dive! Using the smart meter and turning EVERYTHING OFF and bringing stuff back on, one by one.

Discovered......

One Freezer, running 24/7 burning 75W, costing £0.26 x 24 x 0.075 = 47p per day. Defrosting it now to see if that fixes it, or if it needs a new thermostat.
One small computer, running 24/7 burning about 75W (47p)
DVD player and PVR, and assorted bits behind the TV burning another 80W or so. (50p)
A few minor items like the clocks, garage doors, network gear burning about another 75W

TV's and music centre on standby, really insignificant, but from the above I should easily save £40 per month with no effort. I hope the freezer isn't faulty, but if it is, I'm hopeful it's a cheap repair.

While on this, I decided to replace our remaining old light bulbs with LEDs. We'd been working through our stock of old light bulbs, but they are going in the bin, even where unused.

All this has further inclined me to improve the solar rig AGAIN

[Frnc]

Last night, I glanced at the Smart Meter and it was sat showing about 400W being consumed.... But we'd switched most things off for the night, so that troubled me.

So this morning, I did a deep dive analysis of what's just ticking over, using up the 'Leccy.

Note 400W burning constantly costs about 11p an hour or £2.50 per day

It turns out that our daily spend of about £5 - £6 includes around 350 - 400W ( £2 ) of 'Always on' usage.

WHAT The Hell !

I'd thought the expense was Washer/ Drier/ Cooker, and here I was burning half my electricity in my sleep.

So. DEEP Dive! Using the smart meter and turning EVERYTHING OFF and bringing stuff back on, one by one.

Discovered......

One Freezer, running 24/7 burning 75W, costing £0.26 x 24 x 0.075 = 47p per day. Defrosting it now to see if that fixes it, or if it needs a new thermostat.
One small computer, running 24/7 burning about 75W (47p)
DVD player and PVR, and assorted bits behind the TV burning another 80W or so. (50p)
A few minor items like the clocks, garage doors, network gear burning about another 75W

TV's and music centre on standby, really insignificant, but from the above I should easily save £40 per month with no effort. I hope the freezer isn't faulty, but if it is, I'm hopeful it's a cheap repair.

While on this, I decided to replace our remaining old light bulbs with LEDs. We'd been working through our stock of old light bulbs, but they are going in the bin, even where unused.

All this has further inclined me to improve the solar rig AGAIN

£5-6 a day just on electric? Sounds a lot. 3 adults in my house, I spend £50 a month on electricity. If you multiply that by 35% to get standard variable it's £2.25 a day. I can't see how much per hour I'm spending at night because their webite is under maintenance. We have an electric oven, electric mini oven, fridge freezer, washing machine, 3 computers, my hifi, couple of big tellys. We have me at home all the time, 1 lodger about 3-4 days, 1 about 2, plus hols.
75 W sounds quite high for a computer if it's idling. Mine can run at 150W max, but it's gonna be way less than that at night, maybe 20W. Max is for gaming and things like music production, I don't do anything like that. My computer screen is my 43" tv, but I have it on the the eco setting, medium brightness.

[steptoe]

Last night, I glanced at the Smart Meter and it was sat showing about 400W being consumed.... But we'd switched most things off for the night, so that troubled me.

So this morning, I did a deep dive analysis of what's just ticking over, using up the 'Leccy.

Note 400W burning constantly costs about 11p an hour or £2.50 per day

It turns out that our daily spend of about £5 - £6 includes around 350 - 400W ( £2 ) of 'Always on' usage.

WHAT The Hell !

I'd thought the expense was Washer/ Drier/ Cooker, and here I was burning half my electricity in my sleep.

So. DEEP Dive! Using the smart meter and turning EVERYTHING OFF and bringing stuff back on, one by one.

Discovered......

One Freezer, running 24/7 burning 75W, costing £0.26 x 24 x 0.075 = 47p per day. Defrosting it now to see if that fixes it, or if it needs a new thermostat.
One small computer, running 24/7 burning about 75W (47p)
DVD player and PVR, and assorted bits behind the TV burning another 80W or so. (50p)
A few minor items like the clocks, garage doors, network gear burning about another 75W

TV's and music centre on standby, really insignificant, but from the above I should easily save £40 per month with no effort. I hope the freezer isn't faulty, but if it is, I'm hopeful it's a cheap repair.

While on this, I decided to replace our remaining old light bulbs with LEDs. We'd been working through our stock of old light bulbs, but they are going in the bin, even where unused.

All this has further inclined me to improve the solar rig AGAIN

Hi sorry to jump in here you might want to get them to come out and check your meter , we lived in a flat and our bills started going sky high and we are just 2 adlut it was a 1 bed flat yes i was home 24/7 wife was working then , i spent a lot of time in bed or in the gardne due ot health so we could not work out why the spike in cost , call the energy company to be baffled with scienece as they say , so one day we turned every thing off at the sockets hmmm meter still going round ok unplig them all as well did that still going round hmmm says i checked now above we had a drug gang move in and chance the nice guy out so thats another story that ends with me being arrested but on to the power , so i think ok they have chopped in to th floor above found the mains and are jacking my electric hmm so called the comapny out , a nice guy comes checks turns it all off and does what we did then stands scratching his head hmmm thats not right your drawing power ok so he now starts to unwire said mains for ther house leave only yhe meter connected and sure enough power still being drawne not huge amounts but enough to cost us over a year , he then figured out the meter was a new install some 2 years before we moved in and was faulty lol yup so he changed it and out we thought ok at least it is fixed never thought on the money we had been paying until a letter came and said our engernieer has calculated you over spent £1200 pounds here is a cheque and lucky it was just in time to give my wife a real nice christmas lol yup so ask them to come out , but first off turn it all off and unplug because the guy did say sometimes even switching a socket off it can have a very veyr small draw then if all else fails switch it off at the fuse board then check the meter again if it is still running you got a problem
hope that helps

[GillyBee]

Hi Jenny

Your figures look pretty similar to mine. My fridge freezer is running about 75W and clocks up getting on for 2KwH day. We have multiple computers on all day which does add up significantly. I can't see any way around it. The commute cost to go to the office is more than the power cost and still won't save any on heating as we nearly always have someone home.

[jennyjj01]

Last night, I glanced at the Smart Meter and it was sat showing about 400W being consumed.... But we'd switched most things off for the night, so that troubled me.

So this morning, I did a deep dive analysis of what's just ticking over, using up the 'Leccy.

Note 400W burning constantly costs about 11p an hour or £2.50 per day

It turns out that our daily spend of about £5 - £6 includes around 350 - 400W ( £2 ) of 'Always on' usage.

WHAT The Hell !

I'd thought the expense was Washer/ Drier/ Cooker, and here I was burning half my electricity in my sleep.

So. DEEP Dive! Using the smart meter and turning EVERYTHING OFF and bringing stuff back on, one by one.

Discovered......

One Freezer, running 24/7 burning 75W, costing £0.26 x 24 x 0.075 = 47p per day. Defrosting it now to see if that fixes it, or if it needs a new thermostat.

£5-6 a day just on electric? Sounds a lot. 3 adults in my house, I spend £50 a month on electricity. If you multiply that by 35% to get standard variable it's £2.25 a day.

If you think thats bad...it was 440 per month for a few months at the old rate. Read it and weep.
https://uk-preppers.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... 74#p213074
Incredible waste.
I can check the smartmeter with a plug in wattmeter which I have.

Thanks guys.

[jennyjj01]

Hi Jenny

Your figures look pretty similar to mine. My fridge freezer is running about 75W and clocks up getting on for 2KwH day. We have multiple computers on all day which does add up significantly. I can't see any way around it. The commute cost to go to the office is more than the power cost and still won't save any on heating as we nearly always have someone home.

We have two near identical freezers. One pulses 75W and 0W
As it should. One runs 24,7 which probably means faulty stat.