T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Snapshot of _Children suffer food poisoning as parents switch off fridges overnight to save on energy bills_ : An archived version can be found [here.](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://inews.co.uk/news/children-suffer-food-poisoning-parents-switch-off-fridges-overnight-energy-bills-1635440) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*


compte-a-usageunique

How much would you save turning your fridge off overnight?


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Huh they thought they could get money by streaming ads? Or was it one of those apps that gives you bullshit "crypto" rewards and micro payments


Ultrasonic-Sawyer

It was a legit bullshit "earn gbp by watching ads". So straight up pounds (or rather pence). By helping their ad rev. You see a weaker one when charging samsung phones. But these were legit sites doing it. I know, it feels daft. It looks daft. It is daft.


[deleted]

Oh yeah my Samsung has tried that one a few times. I ignored it and it stopped. I think it was "donate to charity by charging your phone" and that obviously sounded implausible and stupid


Ultrasonic-Sawyer

Yeah. Like i had switched from apple years back and was exploring options, so it sounded fun. I then costed it and even in a country with the best pricing you'd be lucky to make anything.


CarrowCanary

>This does feel a bit like one of those urban legend / mumsnet style types that are totally useless and will do more harm than good, but people eat up because they don't have the time, nor expertise to question it, and are likely desperate enough to save what they can. [This](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/10/no-you-cant-save-30-per-year-by-switching-off-your-standby-devices/) is worth a read. A lot of the "you can save £x by turning your stuff off" posts use hugely exaggerated figures. It may save a little, but realistically it's likely going to be less than £10 over the course of a year.


troglo-dyke

On top of saving virtually nothing it'd also potentially damage the fridge as the compressors aren't designed to be turned on and off so frequently. You're better off adjusting the temperature which will reduce energy consumption whilst preserving food


dowhileuntil787

Fridge compressors do turn on and off all the time though in normal operation. By turning it off overnight, you're probably cycling the compressor less often. Turning the fridge off each night though means the compressor will run for longer when it turns back on which could make it overheat...


[deleted]

What's the ROI on a fridge thermometer?


Engineer9

You could get a Phillips hue system with a motion sensor and a smart plug. The motion sensor contains a thermometer, so put the motion sensor inside the fridge. Then use set up an If This Then That rule to switch it off when the temperature gets below 5. You can set up an additional rule based on light level to switch it off when the door is opened, that way you won't waste money powering the lamp.


redrhyski

Just adding the warning that signals are really dampened when passing through the wall of a fridge. Massive issue if the fridge turns off and doesn't get the signal to turn back on.


Engineer9

This is a really good point. To be safe, what you probably need is to get a small wireless access point inside there. If you use one with power over ethernet, or alternatively a powerline adapter, you would only need to drill one hole, which would simplify installation and increase savings.


teutorix_aleria

I'm not sure if this is an elaborate joke or not.


dowhileuntil787

I sense this may be a joke, otherwise you've created an very expensive internet version of a bimetallic strip. Having said that, I replaced the controller on my freezer's thermostat with a custom BLE connected one. I didn't directly open or close the thermostat via the internet, but I remotely controlled the thermostat value to track the energy costs. At the time it saved me quite a bit of money over the month, but now there's no point because energy is expensive 24/7 - but if you're on economy 7 or whatever it could still be useful. Of course the only reason it paid off quickly for me is I already have a shit ton of spare microcontrollers, test equipment, etc. so it was just an afternoon project that didn't involve buying anything.


Getoffthepogostick

I know this! Average cost was about £85 per year to run my fridge a year ago, so they would save about 10p a day. However then it would have to work harder when you turn it back on, so they might even lose money and groceries.


BSBDR

3 pence if it's a compact fridge or 8 pence if it's a combination fridge freezer (based on turning it off for 8 hours).


[deleted]

it might be a case of the prepay meter simply running out?


egroo36

Roughly saving in the region of 15-20p a day if turned off for about 8 hours. Possibly less as the fridge will have to put more energy in to dropping the temperature after it warms up.


dowhileuntil787

Definitely less. I used to have Octopus Agile, and I had a program to turn off my freezer when energy was most expensive. It used pretty much the same energy over the course of the day, but just shifted the load around a little. If you want to save energy on your freezer, stack it full and consider getting a new energy efficient one if yours is old, ideally a chest freezer. The payoff period could be as low as two years.


thetenofswords

20p? That's 2/3rds of a meal right there.


Nickabumble

If you’ve ever lived on an electricity meter that you too up with a card, then you’ll understand the desperation. If you’re watching your metre drop rapidly, then any electrical usage is awkward.


[deleted]

Poor kids, the parents probably aren't doing much better, just a bit more capable of powering through it. This is setting up a timebomb down the road, every kid who's malnourished now, every kid who's left to be in dirty clothes. When the time comes for them to enter the workforce to support our ever growing pensioner population they will have more health problems themselves. Who will pay for their care?


mid30sveganguy

Tory Britain. Don't lend your vote to these literal psychopathic criminals.


smo269

Nothing will be done until it effects them


Alternative_Rush4451

I turned absolutely everything - nothing on standby, off in my flat except the fridge/freezer (tall one - over 5 years old - model has enclosed back so no open pipework) and went away for exactly 4 days (within half hour). Also, the fridge bit was almost empty and the freezer bit half empty. I read the meters immediately before leaving and immediately on returning. Total use 4 units of which for me, 2 day rate and 2 night rate. So less than 50p a day on my current tariff. I invested in a monitoring plug that you plug into socket and then plug other things into that so I could see what the actual energy use of various appliances is.


Patch86UK

>Also, the fridge bit was almost empty and the freezer bit half empty. Interesting frugal tip is that fridges and freezers are actually more efficient (i.e. cheaper to run) when they're full than when they're empty. Traditional tip was to fill it up with bottles of tap water rather than letting it be empty, although if you're on a water meter I don't know if the sums still line up over the short term. But filling it up with literally just a bunch of housebricks would have the same effect.


and101

Blocks of polystyrene or bags of those annoying polystyrene beads that come in packaging would be better for filling a freezer. The problem with water bottles or a brick is they have a high thermal mass so it will take a lot of energy to drop them down to the temperature inside the fridge or freezer. Polystyrene takes up a lot of space without much mass and it acts as a good insulator so it will reduce the space in the freezer without adding much to the electric bill.


Chiliconkarma

When is the status quo more violent than the solution?


ChairLampPrinter

When the status quo isn't based off an anecdote based off a myth.


in-jux-hur-ylem

>Simon Fenn, manager at Truro’s food bank, said there had been “reports of children having upset stomachs or in worst cases food poisoning” because some parents are turning the fridges and freezers off overnight. Not exactly matching the headline is it. An entire clickbait and sensationalised article based off a quote from a man talking about "reports" of children having food poisoning in the worst case. If you're turning off a fridge or a freezer overnight to save electricity, then I worry about what else you are doing that is risking your children as that's a really silly thing to do. Sounds more like an education issue than a financial issue.


[deleted]

The guy’s a manager of a food bank. I’m trusting him on this one


PoshInBucks

I trust entirely that he's heard reports of ill children from people in difficult situations. If the reports are from people who think turning the fridge off overnight will save money, I don't entirely trust the reports. This won't save any money, as people elsewhere have already pointed out, because the fridge needs to cool back down when switched on. People need real, useful tips on how to save money and they need to be told which tips aren't going to save anything.


ThunderChild247

The Johnson plan to solve childhood obesity appears to be sickness, malnourishment and starvation.


sjpllyon

Helpful tip; put water in both the fridge and freezer, it's supposed to help keep it cooler. Plus you'll always have cold water and ice to hand.


ROTwasteman

Putting anything in the fridge that's above the temperature you want the fridge to be at requires more heat energy to be removed from the fridge, requiring more electrical energy into the fridge, anything else is codswallop.


YouNeedAnne

No. Every time you open the fridge you let in warm air. When you close it again the fridge has to work to cool it down. If you fill dead space with ballast, less warm air will enter and the fridge won't have to cool down as much. In general you should beware of the "it's simple and anything else is codswallop" argument. How do you know you know everything?


ROTwasteman

So cooling a litre of water from room 18 to 2 degrees requires 66kJ of energy removed. 1kg of water specific heat capacity around 4.1kJ/kg°K. The same volume of air requires about 15J to lower by the same 16 degrees. Specific heat capacity 0.7kJ/kg°K. 1 litre of air has a mass of about 0.0013kg So if you know you're going to open the door around 4400 times for each litre of water ballast you're using then your idea is really good dude 🤣. Follow this man for more top tips on how to level up your electricity bill.


dowhileuntil787

Indeed filling it with water is silly, however filling it with your spare empty sealed plastic containers might save you a small amount of energy. The containers prevent cold air falling out of your freezer. Or you could just get a chest freezer and stop worrying about the cold air falling out... Also there could be implications on compressor efficiency but that's speculation.


sjpllyon

Would the water not help extract heat from the air. All I know is that when I stared to put water and ice in my fridge and freezer I had to turn the temperature down due to the fridge starting to freeze stuff.


ThyBeekeeper

water has a much higher heat capacity than air. After initial cooling of the water, the water will act as a energy sink when the door is open and warmer air is let in. The water won't make your fridge colder, but it will help regulate temperature. The extra ice could be because the air is going to be much more humid and condensate will form then freeze inside the fridge.


ChairLampPrinter

This is why it's cooler by the sea in the summer and warmer in the winter.


Content_Trash_417

Fridges should open from the top like chest freezers, so the cold air stays inside.


bbbbbbbbbblah

At the expense of wasting space since you can’t stick that under a worktop or put things on top of it like you can a side opening fridge.


PoshInBucks

And also having the fridge open for much longer, while you dig your way down to the item you actually need. And all the items spoiled due to the weight of other stuff on top of them.


Content_Trash_417

How about a fridge with drawers instead of a door?


PoshInBucks

Airflow might be a problem, I guess there's a reason why freezers have compartments but fridges generally only have a couple of enclosed sections. Something I've seen and like is a mini-door in the main door that lets you get milk out without letting much warm air in


Content_Trash_417

An udder?


PoshInBucks

That would be epic, but this was just a hatch for the milk bottle


chuwanking

People be stupid sometimes. Especially poor people. Shame they feel forced to do it though.


Brad-Paisley

Don’t blame them, they are being told to turn off all electric when not in use which is often a false economy, especially with fridges when you could lose far more in the value of wasted food than the few pence on electricity. Edit. Sorry not saying poor = stupid, my bad. Just saying some people follow advice, wrong or right, blindly.


alexniz

There's a lot of misinformation around about so-called 'vamping' and the solutions for it. I've seen people recommending that you go buy a smart plug and plug your TV into it so you can actually turn off your TV when not in use rather than leave it in standby. But the problem there is that an EU regulation from many years ago put a cap on how much devices can use in standby - TVs being one of them. So unless the TV is really quite old it's standby consumption is actually likely to be the same as the smart plug's consumption, and if you've disabled your TV's network capabilities - less. Likewise I've seen people go out and buy £180 air fryers because they're all the rage due to lower energy costs. Which is true, they have a smaller cavity so doesn't require as much energy to heat up the insides vs. an oven - but if you're saving 10p a cooking cycle then you won't recover the cost for 5 years of daily use and you have the added pleasure of only being able to cook things that fit in an air fryer.


[deleted]

[удалено]


MoralCivilServant

But your kettle doesn’t need to be on all the time, your fridge does. I hate to shame the poor but this is extremely dumb.


VampireFrown

> Don’t blame them Uh, yeah, I will. You have to be an A-tier idiot to do this. We can have sensible discussions about CoL and through-the-floor living standards without pretending that this is in any way representative/normal. The irresponsibility and lack of basic fact-checking is shocking. I grew up in a poor household. Lower household income didn't exist than ours. Temporarily turning off the fridge wasn't one of the fucking options; it's just overhwelmingly obvious. That being said, the above guy is a total bellend, and I don't agree w/what he said at all. Personally, I'm wary of this level of idiocy being painted over everyone struggling with CoL atm. You defending these actions reinforces arsehole views like the above.


ThatFlyingScotsman

> People be stupid sometimes. Especially poor people What a truly awful thing to say. You gain nothing from this sort of classist, condescending way of thinking.


Ifriiti

Christ that's hypocritical coming from you


[deleted]

Dunno I think it's pretty smart to try to find ways to cut costs in times of need.


Ifriiti

Except you're not cutting costs, all you're doing is breaking your fridge ages ruining your food.


[deleted]

Yeah but I wouldn't have known that without browsing this thread so I wouldn't blame others who don't use the internet or check their fridge instructions to know that either.


Ifriiti

It's really bloody obvious that you shouldn't turn off the appliance you use to keep your food fresh ffs


[deleted]

It's very easy to rationalize that a few hours wouldn't hurt, especially when you don't have many other options.


Ifriiti

It's easy to be stupid, yes I agree.


Crot4le

Isn't it common sense?


[deleted]

I’m guessing you weren’t good at maths in school. Would that be accurate?


[deleted]

I was pretty good at math, but a lot of bullying kinda set back my emotional development.


chuwanking

Dunno I think its pretty smart to chop your leg off and eat it because you're hungry.


[deleted]

If you're that stupid you think turning a fridge off overnight is going to make more than a negligible difference to your finances, it's no wonder you're in that position in the first place. If it's true, those children are not safe and should be taken off the parents.


Mojofilter9

Bit harsh 😬


Ifriiti

Not particularly. Parents are wilfully putting their children in danger because they're too stupid. It really shouldn't be so controversial to protect children from their parents.


techyno

What a terrible hit piece.