[TAYLOROY]

Hi everyone

just trying to help and want to share my experience.

My energy prices have gone through the roof along with everyone else.

What I have done to try and mitigate the increase, is fit Wi-Fi on / off plugs to extension leeds that supply multiple points.

Fitting Wi-Fi plugs around the house ensuring nothing is on when needed.

especially items on standby.

we have saved 50 watts in 10 days, we will still pay a little more but it’s probably £6 month.

Still working on saving gas

[meldrewreborn]

Originally Posted by TAYLOROY

Hi everyone

just trying to help and want to share my experience.

My energy prices have gone through the roof along with everyone else.

What I have done to try and mitigate the increase, is fit Wi-Fi on / off plugs to extension leeds that supply multiple points.

Fitting Wi-Fi plugs around the house ensuring nothing is on when needed.

especially items on standby.

we have saved 50 watts in 10 days, we will still pay a little more but it’s probably £6 month.

Still working on saving gas

Every little helps they say. When you say you've saved 50 watts is that per hour? so 20 hours = 1kwH or at the next price cap 26p-28p. That would be about £10 per month. How much do the plugs cost and what sort of load can they handle?

[Eddie1944]

If I have to buy a smartphone then how many years will it take before I recoup the capital costs? I assume these WiFi plugs need a smartphone as I have never heard of them.

[TAYLOROY]

Hi

the plugs cost me £28 for three, sonoff s26 plugs are what I bought.

Also forgot to mention we had a dusk til dawn front porch light, again replaced that for a motion sensor porch light.

do you need a phone not sure, maybe it will work with Alexa or a computer.

In my case I used my phone with eWeLink app.

[DebF_EONNext]

Some good advice there @TAYLOROY 😀

I've seen some people where I live now have solar porch lights, has anyone tried those before? I like the idea of solar lighting so much more sustainable and better for your pocket 😉

[Andy65]

I doubt very much @DebF_EONNext that solar lights are suitable for all year around use. I've just looked at one example at random and it says "Will light up for up to 10 hours from a full charge".
So it would probably be okay for June to August, outside of that it becomes more of an ornament. 10 hours would probably never be achieved and in the middle of winter I think you'd be lucky to even get 2 hours.

[DebF_EONNext]

That's a good point @Andy65, I do wonder though if it could be dependent on where you are situated 🤔 for example my garden is south facing so we get the sunlight all day long, even when it's grey it's bright.

We previously bought some solar fairy/string lights which we used over Christmas they were on a timer set to come on at 6pm & off at 11pm, they never struggled at all. I don't know if it would be the same with a security light though as I would assume it needs a bit more oomph to power up, however it is certainly something I'm open to trying 😊

[Andy65]

I'm sure that they're getting better all the time but I thought over the winter months solar panels generate between 10 and 25% of their capacity. So batteries will be depleted quickly and with it being dark from 5pm to 7am I think the lights will have gone out before you've even fetched the cat in.

​​​​​​​I think like most things though you get what you pay for, and also if it's for the garden or decorative then solar isn't a problem. I don't think that I would rely on it for security lighting though.