Sorry, forgot to mention that, wife prepares evening meal
maybe 2 or 3 times per week, at other times were not at home.

If not at home entirely, do you turn off the storage heaters?

E7 Contactors do fail...
o They can fail on continually or fail off
o Timer conceivably can put them on during day rate
o Most modern timers are radio etc triggered


This has been done once, the engineer used his equipment
to monitor the meter.

In which case all that's left is checking E7 switching...
o Check when the timer operates -- re not running into Day Rate
o Check the timer operates correctly -- re on/off

Check storage heaters Control Dials...
o Charge Control - even if Automatic adjust nightly re 1-6
---- the automatic capability is very poor, little better than manual
---- if it goes warm overnight they will easily overcharge
---- tuning 1-6 based on nightly forecast will save a lot of $
o Room Temperature - if left open at night, they waste $
---- dials strip leaving it stuck on open - losing heat when charging
---- automatic charge controller tries to compensate - wastes $
---- people turn the charge controller higher to compensate - wastes $

If you can replace just 1 storage heater with a radiator, do so.


Economy savings...
o Lighting -- 6x 500W halogen is a no-no

We have 2 turned off, the other 4 are triggered by PIR, we live in the
middle of nowhere, no street lighting or anything, ill change the bulbs
for 150w.

150W is fine...
o Cheap change to do vs buying new lights
o Gives lots of light, still the "floodlit" effect
o Saves a lot of $ over 500W

3000W is a big electric heater outside :-)


---- I hope it's not on a 70s lighting ring

The place hasnt been rewired since being built, is this what you mean?.

Partly, 3000W of halogen lighting has 2 characteristics
o Burns 50% more than a 2000W convector heater set to full :-)
---- it may only be a few minutes a day, but it adds up
o Has very high turn on surge & high current consumption
---- most lighting circuits are 6-10A
---- 3kW is 12.5A so I assume on 2 circuits, a hefty lighting load


---- few neighbours will like 500-3000W in line-of-sight

We dont have any neighbours.

I considered that, but they call it a criminal offence :-)))


Can you explain about storage heaters / electricity prices / economy 7
a little, never had them before.

Normal pricing...
o You may a medium price for all hours of the day

Economy 7 pricing...
o You pay a higher price for Day rate than normal pricing
o You pay a very low price for Night rate, far lower than normal pricing

A 3000W storage heater...
o Takes about 50-80p a night to charge depending on set to 1 or 6
o Comes out to 90-110ukp for the whole winter period

I assume you have storage heaters that don't boost in an afternoon,
and also don't use conventional day-rate to boost or run a fan heater.

A 2000W wet radiator...
o Costs probably 25p to deliver the same daily heating, considerably less
o So instead of 90-110ukp for the winter period, it's 25-40ukp

So for every storage heater you remove, you will save ~50-70ukp per year.

If you can remove all 3, I suspect you'd probably save 250ukp per year.
If larger than 3kW, re industrial sized, it could be 500ukp per year.


Congratulations on going for a LCD v Plasma big-screen...
o Plasma can draw 380-750W - that adds up *fast*
---- heat isn't wasted in a house, but it's inefficient creation
o LCD will draw 80W I guess re that size backlighting
---- depends on how bright you have the backlight

It was the price of the warranty for plasma, and the fact that i was
told by the salespeople that they didnt expect a plasma to go more than
18 months without requiring major surgery, that made me go for LCD.

Plasmas are ideal for business or presentations or media buyers.
o They have a finite life, lots of sunk cost, lots of risk for consumers
o Running costs are also ugly - 200ukp/yr for the biggest units

An LCD has a backlight half-life of 30,000-40,000hrs (4-5yrs) and
a failure curve which if it lasts the first year, it should last a good
time.

In 4yrs an LCD TV v Plasma TV will have saved enough electricity to...
o Pay for its replacement outright, or
o Pay for a mid-range branded 3yr warranty laptop outright


o Desktop will be higher
---- realise 3 monitors = 3 backlights = 35-40W each
-------- backlight life is power-on-hours, so power off if unused
---- Prescott P4 CPU dissipates 50W at idle
-------- 24/7/52 = 22.2ukp day-rate + 2.52ukp night-rate = 25ukp/yr
-------- power off when not in use - idle is still 50W

I power off monitors when i leave the room.

Fine, don't power down 3.5" HDs.
The FDB used in them is different to 2.5" HDs re stop/start cycles.


Now Printers...
o Laser printers
---- recent models idle at a few watts, older models quite a few watts
---- fuser is 350-500W, schedule big-prints to E7 or use a HP990 inkjet

Ill turn all printers off from now on, theyre rareley used.

If lasers it is *really* worth doing - along with printing "bulk"...
o Power off + Set the printer driver to paused
o Power on when enough documents in the queue + Unpause the printer

This also helps you save paper.

Another trick when you want just a record is...
o Install CutePDF -- it is a Printer which creates PDF files
o Say you want a short-term hard copy of something -- print to CutePDF

Examples are online purchases or web pages etc, it stores a copy which
you can later print to paper if required, or delete if no longer required.
Free program, no logo or annoying pop-up, works fine.

Finally, check any electric water heating - failed thermostat or stuck on.
Had a unit fail to the "bath" element & thermostat fail closed - never cut
out and used to boil the water if left on long enough. Manual timers can
be had for electric boosting - eg, 5/10/15min push-button.
--
DB.