Thanks ACTEW energy saving person!

gazket said :

Grail said :

Bunnings have LED bulbs

$60 a light bulb

Shop around. We kitted the whole house with new Wide beam LED down lights. 8w draw and most of the time they’re dimmed cause they’re pretty bright. It’s instant light too, none of this warming up like CFL.
The downlighting kits were $40 at Beacon Lighting in Queanbeyan.

dungfungus said :

Good point. I have looked at the stuff now and see that it is a Yidong wireless unit with a range of 30m which is less than where my neighbour has his TV. My remote master control will turn off multiple power points (wherever a receiver is plugged in between the power point and the device). Thanks for pointing that out.

Did it come with a manual? The receivers might ( or might not, dependant on crappiness of the device) might have a “learning mode” which you should be able to reset, and once you have paired it with your remote control, turn it off so it doesn’t learn the signal from your neighbours remote.

Failing that, get the ACTEW chappy back and get the IR-controlled switch for your telly.

Grail said :

Bunnings have LED bulbs

$60 a light bulb

MrBigEars said :

dungfungus said :

As I already have one of those TV turner-off things I declined his other offer. My neighbour/s have those infrared power point controllers also and it is annoying because we both overide each other’s control so at 10.30pm when I want to watch Lateline he turns his off (he is smarter than me) and we have an “on and off” war. I eventually win.

I thought infrared worked on line-of-sight?

Good point. I have looked at the stuff now and see that it is a Yidong wireless unit with a range of 30m which is less than where my neighbour has his TV. My remote master control will turn off multiple power points (wherever a receiver is plugged in between the power point and the device). Thanks for pointing that out.

dungfungus said :

As I already have one of those TV turner-off things I declined his other offer. My neighbour/s have those infrared power point controllers also and it is annoying because we both overide each other’s control so at 10.30pm when I want to watch Lateline he turns his off (he is smarter than me) and we have an “on and off” war. I eventually win.

I thought infrared worked on line-of-sight?

I had the Actew energy saver man knocking on my door a couple of days ago. I initially thought “they are on to me for removing my shower head flow restrictors” but he was actually offering “free” curly tube light bulbs and TV power control units.
I said he could give all the stuff and I would install it later but he said part of the deal was that he had to take all the old evil light bulbs away so I declined his offer and asked him to give me a credit on my bill for the money I had saved them.
As I already have one of those TV turner-off things I declined his other offer. My neighbour/s have those infrared power point controllers also and it is annoying because we both overide each other’s control so at 10.30pm when I want to watch Lateline he turns his off (he is smarter than me) and we have an “on and off” war. I eventually win.

Grail said :

You might want to investigate “Master/Slave” power boards. These work by monitoring the current on the “master” socket, turning on the “slave” sockets when the “master” draws significant current. The idea being (for example) that you plug the TV into the Master socket, with the DVD, Telstra/FoxTel/whatever, PS3, Xbox, etc in the slave sockets, and you only have to worry about turning the TV on and off.

I have one of these, works perfectly. Well, except that if you are doing recording with the TV off you need to make sure the recorder (PVR or whatever) is plugged into a ‘non slave’ socket, but that is no big deal.

I have not had much success with ‘green initiatives’ – they never seem to make them efficient in the user friendly sense.
I chucked the power saving tv thing in the bin in fury after it kept turning the telly off in the middle of things.
And I kept my wonderful old shower head and put it back on after the ‘water saving’ guy left. It was simply useless. I can now have a 2 min shower instead of a 10 min trickle while I freeze to death and try to rinse all the shampoo out of my hair.
Also one of those ‘heat pump’ hot water heaters had to be removed because it didn’t actually work, or save me any money. It was far cheaper to remain on off peak.
Not to mention how pricy the new light bulbs are. Old light bulbs were 20c. Luckily I still have a few.

bd84 said :

The only incandescent light globes left on sale are halogens as the sale of regular incandescent light globes ended in 2009,. I’m sure you had figured that out after 4 years..

I’m aware of the ban, thanks. Supabarn must have stock-piled because there’s no way it’s been 4 years since I bought the last batch – a year at most. Still got a couple in the cupboard in fact. I swung past there earlier today out of interest and, you’re right, nothing but halogens and CF’s.

thatsnotme said :

That TV thing really does suck badly. The bit where it turns everything off a minute after you power down the TV, I can live with. But the fact that if after 1, 2 or 3 hours (depending on how it’s set) it turns everything off for you just sucks!

You might want to investigate “Master/Slave” power boards. These work by monitoring the current on the “master” socket, turning on the “slave” sockets when the “master” draws significant current. The idea being (for example) that you plug the TV into the Master socket, with the DVD, Telstra/FoxTel/whatever, PS3, Xbox, etc in the slave sockets, and you only have to worry about turning the TV on and off.