This week I take the EDF Energy EcoManager into the studio where I work as a freelance journalist, so I can get a handle on my daytime energy use outside of the home.
I plug my laptop into one of the transmitters and plug the transmitter into the wall. The computer is on but idle and the reading is 11 watts, that's just over 4p a day. It's nice and low, but it's not realistic – it won't be idle for long. I attach my mouse and a keyboard and start to write.
My mobile phone says it has 21% battery left, so I plug it in to the transmitter too and forget about it, as I would usually. A while later, I check the EcoManager and it reads 63 watts, that's 23p a day (£7.41 a month).
Back at home later that evening, I randomly decide to bake some bread. I dust off the breadmaker, throw in my ingredients (rye and wholemeal flour and a handful of linseeds – well, this a Guardian blog, what did you expect?), choose my setting (wholewheat mix) and turn the machine on. At first the reading is 64 watts (25p a day), then it climbs to 72 watts, then 74 watts (29p).
Three hours later, when there is still an hour left of the programme, the reading is a shockingly high 557 watts. That's £2.18 a day or £65.72 a month. Presumably this is the oven stage of the cycle, so it makes sense, but even so I am relieved when the cycle ends.
What I've realised is that before I had the EcoManager, on some level I still considered charging my mobile, laptop and things like the bread machine as "free". But everything has a cost, both financial and environmental, and when you know the true cost of electricity, it's in your power to do something about it.
About the author
Hannah is a freelance journalist who lives in east London with her partner. Despite often being found watching TV while working on her laptop with the radio playing in the kitchen, Hannah considers herself environmentally aware: she takes a keen interest in growing her own vegetables and cycles to work. Here she re-evaluates her energy consumption at home thanks to EDF Energy's EcoManager.
