Mass electricity “switch-off” at 6pm tonight: will you take part to send a message about price?

[Guanche]

Well after two months of running round the house turning lights off, Turning off one of the two fridges we were using and generally trying to be careful, we got the bill today. I have to say I was disappointed. Before we, or I should say I, tried to reduce the bill we were paying about €98 every two months. This bill is €82 a reduction of about €16! Was it worth it? No, will I be carring on with the experiment? No. Very disappointing.

[Janet]

well I dunno, G, that's around a 15% saving ...

[Guanche]

But for what I didn't do and what I did do I expected more. We had two fridges on the go. One a large fridge freezer was in the up stairs kitchen. It had two compressors so we only had the freezer half working. We also had a larder fridge with a separate small freezer box in the down stairs kitchen. So we brought the large newer fridge freezer down stairs and took the old one up stairs and turned it off.

We have two large flat screen TV's one in the living room and the wife's in the bedroom. For the experiment I decided I would not use mine in the living room but go to bed a bit earlyer and watch the wife's TV.

I didn't do any work in the garage with my machines. Just turning the light on in the garage illuminates 8 110cm fluorescent light bulbs not to mention the 1.5 horse power electric motors on my circular saw 2hp compressor and other electrical machines that I would normally use on a daily basis. I even turned down the fountains in the garden.

I would find it difficult to reduce our consumption any more. So as I say disappointing on the bright side I can now go back to watching what I want on my TV!

[Janet]

well on that basis I would say you'd done as well as you could to minimise your expenditure, and that a 15% saving was really not worth the inconvenience. At least you've found out you weren't wasting it awfully.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

From before,

On 24/12 they charged us 216.63€.
On 18/10 they charged us 135.28€.

The 21/2 bill was 194.29€.  That is a reduction of 22.34 or 10%. 

I think it is still too early to draw any conclusions here.  And our bill will be high in April as I have simply had to turn on the space heater from time to time as at 16 degrees you can see your breath. 

[Delderek]

Don't think you guys should get to paranoid about Electricity prices, many of the things that have been mentioned are very low consumption, so you may find my figures below help you make the right decisions.

A flat sceen LED TV will will only cost about 3.0c per hour (Plasma almost 75% higher)
A Fridge about 2.0c per hour
A freezer about 2.1c per hour
Ceiling Fan about 1.1c per hour

The items below consume a little more but still not a big worry.
An Iron about 22c per hour
An electric kettle about 30c per hour
An 100w tungsten bulb  15c per hour
A 6ft fluorescent tube about 12c per hour

Now the culprits that run away with the money.
Washing machine about 45c per hour
Dish washer about 45c per hour
Water heater about 35c per hour
Heating or Aircon around 45c per hour

All are maximum consumption, and many appliances are thermosat controlled and so are not consuming all the time.

I have calculated the price at around 15c per KWH which I think is about right for Tenerife.

[poker]

Tenerife gets nearly the most sunshine of the whole of europe.
If you want cheap electricity put a solarpanel on youre roof and dont tell the gouvernment as they can tax you prehaps later as they did in Belgium.

[Delderek]

Tenerife gets nearly the most sunshine of the whole of europe.
If you want cheap electricity put a solarpanel on youre roof and dont tell the gouvernment as they can tax you prehaps later as they did in Belgium.

If only it was that simple. Solar panels on their own are pretty useless.  They generate DC current and then have to have very expensive inverters to convert to AC.
These expensive units have a relatively short life. And make the whole equation questionable.

[Janet]

and really, considering the fines they are talking about if they catch people doing it without reporting it, taking a flyer on them not catching you isn't worth a candle ... as they say ...

[poker]

As I already mensioned on another thread , yust put all youre lighting on it its very eazy and stay on 12 v .

No complications or heavy uses on 220 neccery , leave youre fridge , wascher and kettle on the mains .

A simple light systhem doesent cost to mutch and is earnt back in a couple of year .

The peaple getting cought are these putting 220v back in the systhem and letting their meter run backwoulds .
They can never fine you with an even big 12 v systhem as you are doing nothing wrong .