Save Money – Invest in Energy

OK, I admit it – the title of this page is misleading but there is a reason. I’ve noticed how many people really don’t care much about the environment. Global warming -” ha,” they say, “we’ve had a rotten summer.” It’s not that they’re unintelligent and don’t understand the issues of climate change that the media tells us about every day, they just don’t care enough to pay attention.

So if appeals to people to reduce their carbon footprint and save energy to save the planet fall on deaf ears, I thought I’d appeal to their selfishness. Now if that description doesn’t apply to you and you’re feeling a bit insulted, don’t be. I’ve written articles in Low Cost Living about how saving energy saves you money and compared it to the money you would gain from investing in a bank or building society. So, whatever your motives, you can do the right thing for the planet and help your personal bank balance improve.

In actual fact, I’d argue that investing in some of the new energy saving devices is safer than the bank. Interest rates may well fall – they reckon they’ve probably hit the peak for the medium term – but energy costs are very unlikely indeed to fall in the medium term and certainly not in the long term. Either way the returns on investing in energy saving are 10 times that of a bank.

Recently we’ve seen lots of electrical appliances come out with standby rather than a simple off switch.  It’s not as if we still have valve technologies where you had to wait for quite a span as the TV warmed up. It just saves us from getting off our behind and flicking a switch.

One chap on the forums said he’d tested some appliances and found out their power draw was the same on standby as when running. That’s an extreme case, but the truth is that an appliance that is switched on for say 6 hours a day is, if left on standby, drawing 8 watts for 18 hours a day. We will forget holidays and that many appliances draw more power. So 8 watts for 18 hours a day is 0.144 KWh (Kilowatt hours or units) of electricity a day.

That 0.144 Kwh a day times 365 is  52.56 Kwh  each year or just over £5.00 in electricity cost.  You can buy a device that will cut off  a number of appliances for just £30.00. So a return on investment of 50%. Sounds too good to e true? Well do the math for yourself.