Switched on... But not turned on...

So if I've got my hair straighteners plugged in to an outlet with the switch on the plug in the on position, but the straighteners turned off, does this cost me energy?

Also I just moved into my first uk flat.

This is my water heater (that's called a boiler here, right?) in one closet in a bedroom (and next to the bathroom), but the hallway just outside the bedroom there's a closet that's got the fusebox and two switches.



This is a close-up of the two switches:


 
This is the closet in the nearest bedroom with the water heater:


First off, what are the two switches for? If I can turn off the water heater, should I? I'm confused.




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Most devices do use some electricity when they are plugged in but turned off. It may depend on the device.

Yeah, definitely a boiler.

Personally, I wouldn't do anything with those switches. One of them is probably to your hot water heater, but it's really not obvious which one it is. You could save some money from having it turned off some of the time, but you also could have the issue of not having hot water when you want it.

Also, your hot water heater/boiler is probably how your apartment is heated and messing with that will affect the temperature.

My parents (in the USA) always turn the hot water heater off when on vacation.  Makes sense.  No need to keep that big ole tank hot if you are gone for a couple of weeks. 

Unless your hair straightener has some kind of standby mode, I wouldn't think that it should use any electricity when it's plugged in and turned off.  However, if it were me I'd completely unplug it for the fire risk. 

I can't pretend to be an expert on the sometimes bizarre UK plumbing and heating, but if I were you I would want to know if that system uses an immersion heater and if there is some kind of timer to stop it being on all the time.  Most people don't heat an immersion system 24/7 as that would be ridiculously expensive.  Some landlords don't care because they don't pay the electricity bill.  We've got a really complicated timer on ours .  It might be worth clarifying with the landlord what's running and wether it needs to.  You could always ask a plumber but they might be so expensive they'll cost more than any savings you could make.

Our boiler (and large radiator in the living room) all have two switches. One is for "charging" (usually done overnight where it's cheapest) and the other is for immediate heat/hot water which tends to cost a bit more.

I also remember getting a leaflet when I first came here to university to always have the switches off when not using them because it will still use a bit of electricity. My husband tends to keep them on and it's become a pet peeve of mine now!

I also remember getting a leaflet when I first came here to university to always have the switches off when not using them because it will still use a bit of electricity. My husband tends to keep them on and it's become a pet peeve of mine now!

Huh?  If nothing is plugged into an outlet, no electricity should be used no matter wether the switch is on or off.  If something is plugged in , then it depends on what's plugged in.  Maybe the pamphlet was talking about appliances like TVs that have a stand by mode that consumes electricity. 

You sound like my wife, who sneaks around the house turning off those little switches when you are not looking .  She seems to think that fire will jump out!

By the way , the UK electrical outlet is much better designed than the American one.  There are actually little covers that protect the holes with live wires, these are pushed out of the way with the big third prong.  British kids can't put metal things into the socket to shock themselves unless they do all three holes at once.  Consequently, those plastic outlet protectors they sell to kid proof houses are actually more dangerous than nothing at all and are only sold to make greedy money .  Without the plastic protector, the outlet is almost impregnable already.  But if he bends it the right way, the plastic protector provides exactly what the inquisitive kid needs, a piece of plastic just the right size to shove in there and move those covers aside. 

Trust me as a kid who was attracted to outlets like a magnet and learned about electricity the hard way!

Huh?  If nothing is plugged into an outlet, no electricity should be used no matter wether the switch is on or off.  If something is plugged in , then it depends on what's plugged in.  Maybe the pamphlet was talking about appliances like TVs that have a stand by mode that consumes electricity. 

You sound like my wife, who sneaks around the house turning off those little switches when you are not looking .  She seems to think that fire will jump out!

Sorry, I meant when something was plugged in but not being used.

I don't think a fire is going to jump out, haha! Just stuck with me I'm using electricity! (or was led to believe so!)

Sorry, I meant when something was plugged in but not being used.

I don't think a fire is going to jump out, haha! Just stuck with me I'm using electricity! (or was led to believe so!)

I could not remember for the life of me to switch the plugs off when I first moved here.

I forget sometimes, but my husband is so anal about it. If I forget to switch the kettle, oven or microwave off he gets so annoyed. It's kind of humorous. He used to tell me I couldn't charge my phone except when it was sunny out (we have solar panels)... I nipped that one in the butt.. but seriously he's anal.

Soo.... I did more research. More than I wanted to! But I sat down and looked at my meter and oh boy am I shelling out a lot for electrics. I'm using about 32 Kwh per day that works out to about 4-5£ per day. I need i needed to lower it if possible.

I found this page that showed me this picture:


and traced the wires to each switch in the closet. The top switch is for the immersion heater on the bottom heater on the tank (bottom switch is for the top immersion heater), which according to this post:

the top immersion is used when heating a smaller amount of water.... say for hand washing during the day etc.... then the bottom one heats the entire tank... so the bottom one should be on for the morning if people are bathing or evening, and the top one utilised to heat less water for other tasks... It should be well lagged, and if its a modern one you should get very little heat loss through it.. unless they have skimped on good quality tanks of course...

U need to set the tanks according to likely usage, using the top immersion primarily, and the bottom one can be switched on for bathing times.... If its poorly lagged u will lose a lot of energy and therefore money...

So essentially I should turn one on at night (it looks like it takes about 5 hours to warm the whole bottom tank), so that I'll have a nice not bath in the morning. I'm going to play with it and see how much it changes my usage/bill.

Also, I'm SO confused with the different tariffs. I am currently on a prepaid meter with Utilita (it was here when I moved in). It's my understanding from my research that prepaid meters are expensive and are generally for people with bad credit.

So I'm shopping around and I find that they try hiding the true price of the tariff. Bristol offers their energy at 12p per Kilowatt hour (Kwh), but there's  a "standing charge" of 34p a day. 

My current provider does offer Utilita offers what I guess is a standard in the energy world. It's called E7 or Economy7. Most companies I've looked at offers a day and night rate. Utilita offers this:


So if I switch to their plan and I still use 32 Kwh per day (say 8 Kwh in the day, 24 Kwh at night) it'll work out like this?
 
First Day rate per Kwh=£.35p
+
Second Day rate (2-24 Kwh) Kwh=(.16p*=£1.28
+
night rate (.7p*24)=£1.68
total=£3.31 per day for my 32 Kwh of energy.


Seems a bit convoluted/way to hide the true cost.

You are absolutely correct that the point is to hide the true cost.  Welcome to rip off Britain!   You've also stumbled upon another ugly truth, poor people are frequently given pre paid meters and the rates for those are extortionate.  So, it has been carefully worked out that absolute poorest people pay much more for energy than the rich.  And, everyone pays more than they should because the bills are purposefully designed to be incomprehensible. 

My practical advice to you is to find out if there is a timer for that immersion heater and if not, contact your landlord to get one installed.  That shouldn't be a surprise to them as I understand most people have them for the obvious reason you have discovered. 

If you'll be in this place for a while, you should ask the landlord if you can get rid of that pre paid meter.  Soon, it will drive you crazy by running out at inconvenient times.  Then you'll be able to get a normal tariff like everyone else. 

You may also be able to switch suppliers to get a better tariff, there are plenty of comparison sites on the net to find a cheaper one.  I'm not 100 sure this option works with pre pay because I only had one for a short time.

Talk to your landlord, maybe talk to citizens advice as they might have experience with this, and consider posting this in a different forum that has some British plumbing oriented people.

Soo.... I did more research. More than I wanted to! But I sat down and looked at my meter and oh boy am I shelling out a lot for electrics. I'm using about 32 Kwh per day that works out to about 4-5£ per day. I need i needed to lower it if possible.

I found this page that showed me this picture:


and traced the wires to each switch in the closet. The top switch is for the immersion heater on the bottom heater on the tank (bottom switch is for the top immersion heater), which according to this post:
So essentially I should turn one on at night (it looks like it takes about 5 hours to warm the whole bottom tank), so that I'll have a nice not bath in the morning. I'm going to play with it and see how much it changes my usage/bill.

Also, I'm SO confused with the different tariffs. I am currently on a prepaid meter with Utilita (it was here when I moved in). It's my understanding from my research that prepaid meters are expensive and are generally for people with bad credit.

So I'm shopping around and I find that they try hiding the true price of the tariff. Bristol offers their energy at 12p per Kilowatt hour (Kwh), but there's  a "standing charge" of 34p a day. 

My current provider does offer Utilita offers what I guess is a standard in the energy world. It's called E7 or Economy7. Most companies I've looked at offers a day and night rate. Utilita offers this:


So if I switch to their plan and I still use 32 Kwh per day (say 8 Kwh in the day, 24 Kwh at night) it'll work out like this?
 
First Day rate per Kwh=£.35p
+
Second Day rate (2-24 Kwh) Kwh=(.16p*=£1.28
+
night rate (.7p*24)=£1.68
total=£3.31 per day for my 32 Kwh of energy.


Seems a bit convoluted/way to hide the true cost.

To get the E7 tariff you have to have the right meter. It's a slightly more complicated one and it has two different numbers it tracks. Our current house has it but neither I or my husband (UKC) had ever heard of it when me moved in last year. So it's not exactly the norm yet.

if you want to switch to a lower tariff it helps by getting off a prepaid meter for starters. some suppliers charge for this, but if you switch to a larger supplier some will do this for free. the flat we moved into had a prepaid meter from npower, so we switched to edf and after 30 days you are able to request a meter change.


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To get the E7 tariff you have to have the right meter. It's a slightly more complicated one and it has two different numbers it tracks. Our current house has it but neither I or my husband (UKC) had ever heard of it when me moved in last year. So it's not exactly the norm yet.

just to comment on the e7 style of tariff, this is being phased out by the industry so you will not find many suppliers who will offer switching customers to this. it's a legacy style of profiling customer consumption that is being replaced which smart metering (whenever this gets rolled out, it's a ways away!)

edit: apologies i just realised this comment is irrelevant, i didn't realise that suppliers had prepayment meters for e7, thought prepayment meters were only available for unrestricted tariffs. i work in the industry but not in the supply area so the supply contracts are a bit more of an unknown. it's irritating because the industry is highly regulated by ofgem, but the parties that get the most flexibility with pricing in the industry are the suppliers!

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just to comment on the e7 style of tariff, this is being phased out by the industry so you will not find many suppliers who will offer switching customers to this. it's a legacy style of profiling customer consumption that is being replaced which smart metering (whenever this gets rolled out, it's a ways away!)

edit: apologies i just realised this comment is irrelevant, i didn't realise that suppliers had prepayment meters for e7, thought prepayment meters were only available for unrestricted tariffs. i work in the industry but not in the supply area so the supply contracts are a bit more of an unknown. it's irritating because the industry is highly regulated by ofgem, but the parties that get the most flexibility with pricing in the industry are the suppliers!

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Our house isn't prepaid, but it had the day and night meter in it when we moved in.