My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?

[StoneRoad]

No worries - and they certainly aren't essential or even welcome if you literally have no way to reduce your usage.

I'm still fucked off about the removal of low usage tariffs where there was no daily standing charge but a much higher rate per Kw/h, it was much better for people like me. Even before the current energy price crisis, that increased my annual gas costs by about 300% overnight - that was many years ago now. As I don't cook with gas and don't use a lot of heating (typically have it on for about 2 to 4 hours each winter to take the chill off) or hot water, if it was up to me I'd have it disconnected and have a small electric immersion heater for hot water put back in, but OH panics at the suggestion of not having hot water without a couple of hours of planning.

ref pre-planning hot water, or not.
IIRC you can get some quite decent electrical "instant" showers these days, I think that they do need a decent head of water pressure to work at their best.

 

[Epona]

ref pre-planning hot water, or not.
IIRC you can get some quite decent electrical "instant" showers these days, I think that they do need a decent head of water pressure to work at their best.

Don't think we can stretch to anything like that atm but will have a look.
I just feel at this point that we are paying standing charge every day and not even using hot water every day.
That might change during the winter when I imagine we might want to have a bit of hot water (not just for shower but hot taps in the sink and bathroom).
Generally we don't need heating -top floor flat, well insulated, a plug in radiator would probably do for the couple of times a year we put the heating on.

I personally think if we had any money to remedy the situation, we could go for a small electric immersion heater and have it on overnight (do they still do Economy 7?)
Because right now we are at a ridiculous point where we are paying a daily standing charge for a utility we barely use, and another daily standing charge for a utility we use a lot, and if we could go all electric, we'd save on that gas standing charge that we're paying while barely using any bloody gas.

The only way we could reduce our annual gas usage (of ACTUAL gas, not standing charges) at this point would be to go into negative numbers if we connected a hoover pipe to the supply and farted down it a couple of times a day.

 

[cupid_stunt]

ref pre-planning hot water, or not.
IIRC you can get some quite decent electrical "instant" showers these days, I think that they do need a decent head of water pressure to work at their best.

Careful now, she doesn't like helpful advice!

 

[StoneRoad]

Don't think we can stretch to anything like that atm but will have a look.
I just feel at this point that we are paying standing charge every day and not even using hot water every day.
That might change during the winter when I imagine we might want to have a bit of hot water (not just for shower but hot taps in the sink and bathroom).
Generally we don't need heating -top floor flat, well insulated, a plug in radiator would probably do for the couple of times a year we put the heating on.

I personally think if we had any money to remedy the situation, we could go for a small electric immersion heater and have it on overnight (do they still do Economy 7?)
Because right now we are at a ridiculous point where we are paying a daily standing charge for a utility we barely use, and another daily standing charge for a utility we use a lot, and if we could go all electric, we'd save on that gas standing charge that we're paying while barely using any bloody gas.

The only way we could reduce our annual gas usage (of ACTUAL gas, not standing charges) at this point would be to go into negative numbers if we connected a hoover pipe to the supply and farted down it a couple of times a day.

My late father's house in Wales was all electric - he had night store heaters and an immersion with a "boost" switch.
Sadly, I think econ7 died as a result of privatisation, although we did find him a suitable "low-use" tariff, I think from Scottish Power.

When I stayed there, I could heat the tank enough for a shallow bath in less than an hour. Getting the tank fully hot [on econ7] overnight and not having a bath - just a sink / strip wash - in the morning meant the water would stay hot enough for at least a full day, if not longer. If I had an early bath, I could catch the last of the econ7 to top up the heat in the tank.

 

[Epona]

Careful now, she doesn't like helpful advice!

Please don't do this, I've had an absolute shitter of a week.
I just don't need Kw/h and standing charge costs personsplained to me is all.
I know how much gas I am using.
Info about how to switch to all electric is considerably more useful to me.

Please don't have a go at me for not wanting to be told to get a smart meter otherwise I didn't know how much gas I am using. I am using NONE right now.

 

[StoneRoad]

Epona - yup, you would be better off without a gas supply.

 

[two sheds]

I was surprised when I learned that Economy 7 tariff was higher than standard tariff during the day, often making it not quite so worthwhile.

 

[Elpenor]

Regarding economy 7, pretty certain this is only an option if you don’t have a gas supply and of course you need storage heaters or equivalent to benefit from it really.

 

[StoneRoad]

I was surprised when I learned that Economy 7 tariff was higher than standard tariff during the day, often making it not quite so worthwhile.

My late FiL had this, but being an electrician, he had all sorts on the same circuits as the night storage heaters ...
The washing machine and the long term chest freezer ie rarely opened up ...

 

[Chz]

I was surprised when I learned that Economy 7 tariff was higher than standard tariff during the day, often making it not quite so worthwhile.

If it weren't, why on earth wouldn't everyone be on it?

Only reason we have a smart meter is looking forward to variable rates. I like the idea of planning washer, dryer, dishwasher around it without having to go whole hog with Eco7. But it seems nowhere near to wide rollout unless you have a car charger.

 

[two sheds]

If it weren't, why on earth wouldn't everyone be on it?

People with no night time consumption.

 

[WouldBe]

I was surprised when I learned that Economy 7 tariff was higher than standard tariff during the day, often making it not quite so worthwhile.

That was the whole point to encourage people to use power overnight when there was less demand but they still had to keep the generators going.

 

[WouldBe]

My late FiL had this, but being an electrician, he had all sorts on the same circuits as the night storage heaters ...
The washing machine and the long term chest freezer ie rarely opened up ...

My parents used to put the washing machine on a timer to use eco7 electricity.

 

[two sheds]

That was the whole point to encourage people to use power overnight when there was less demand but they still had to keep the generators going.

Indeed, though as I say I was surprised that daytime tariff was higher because it's overall a benefit to the utility.

 

[Elpenor]

My parents used to put the washing machine on a timer to use eco7 electricity.

Yeah that’s what I did when I had it.

 

[BigMoaner]

Had two reductions in the past few months. Thank fuck.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

My parents used to put the washing machine on a timer to use eco7 electricity.

They don't recommend running white goods while you sleep nowadays though in case they spontaneously combust. Putting an immersion heater on would be fine, but I wouldn't run the washer during the night.

 

[BigMoaner]

They don't recommend running white goods while you sleep nowadays though in case they spontaneously combust. Putting an immersion heater on would be fine, but I wouldn't run the washer during the night.

Put a throw in the washing machine the other day, the washing machine started over heating, kicking out steam. Scared the living bollocks out of me. Couldn't open the door, turned it off at the mains. Works fine now tho.

 

[kalmatthew]

No idea of Epona's motives, but I don't want a smart meter, either. More for reasons of general unco-operative arsiness than anything else. I have a Raspberry Pi-based power monitoring system which is web-based and integrates with my home automation setup; smart meters generally don't integrate.

Do you have gas? I'm big on homeassitant but having a mare of a time trying to get gas numbers in. I inherited smart meters though so very little options

 

[Epona]

They don't recommend running white goods while you sleep nowadays though in case they spontaneously combust. Putting an immersion heater on would be fine, but I wouldn't run the washer during the night.

My parents' last white goods disaster was that they were getting ready to go out and smelled something burning, turned out their fucking freezer had caught fire - they immediately unplugged it and called the fire brigade, unsure of if they just left it would it burn out due to lack of air with the door shut or not (and fire brigade confirmed they did the right thing by calling them).

I'm not going to turn my fridge or freezer off overnight or when I am out because I reckon the risk of life-threatening food poisoning (which is not just a bit of a dicky tummy and can result in organ failure and death) is higher than the fairly low risk of something catching fire - but by the same score, I'm not going to run the washing machine while I am asleep our out of the house.

 

[existentialist]

Do you have gas? I'm big on homeassitant but having a mare of a time trying to get gas numbers in. I inherited smart meters though so very little options

No, no gas.

 

[Chz]

People with no night time consumption.

Edit: Nah, I'm just being a dick about it.

 

[WouldBe]

Edit: Nah, I'm just being a dick about it.

With battery storage being a lot cheaper you could charge the battery on eco7 at cheap rates and use the power during the day.

 

[Chz]

With battery storage being a lot cheaper you could charge the battery on eco7 at cheap rates and use the power during the day.

See that's the ideal once everyone is on smart meters. You could program the batteries to only charge when the price goes below a threshold. (ditto dishwasher et.al) Damn you electric companies, this is the future I was promised and I want to see it before I'm dead!

 

[Epona]

In some cases the energy companies are making billions in profit.
While their customers go without basic necessities while being threatened with legal action.

Whichever way you come by the hourly costs of running a freezer in your home, or a load of laundry, this is obscene.

 

[NoXion]

Smart meters can go get fucked. They're not for your benefit, they're for the benefit of the energy companies. They want more information out of you that they can then monetise. All the energy company actually needs from the customer is how much energy they're using, and any relevant billing information resulting from that. They don't need to know anything else, and I certainly don't want any "help" from the greedy fucking cunts in managing my own consumption.

 

[Epona]

Smart meters can go get fucked. They're not for your benefit, they're for the benefit of the energy companies. They want more information out of you that they can then monetise. All the energy company actually needs from the customer is how much energy they're using, and any relevant billing information resulting from that. They don't need to know anything else, and I certainly don't want any "help" from the greedy fucking cunts in managing my own consumption.

Thank you, well said, that sums up my view of it although I couldn't find the right words earlier.

 

[two sheds]

Smart meters can go get fucked. They're not for your benefit, they're for the benefit of the energy companies. They want more information out of you that they can then monetise. All the energy company actually needs from the customer is how much energy they're using, and any relevant billing information resulting from that. They don't need to know anything else, and I certainly don't want any "help" from the greedy fucking cunts in managing my own consumption.

From that rousing whitepaper:

To date, smart meters are being used for providing consumers with accurate and timely energy billing

Have you thought of getting a smart meter, cupid_stunt, to help with your billing problems?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Have you thought of getting a smart meter, cupid_stunt, to help with your billing problems? :

I haven't personally had any billing problems since getting smart meters, which have also helped to save me hundreds of pounds too.

Neither was there a problem with my mother's billing, until her place became unoccupied, and EDF just ignored all the notifications about that.

 

[muscovyduck]

How did they put you on a DD without your consent?

I don't doubt you btw in case it looks like that was why I was asking, just curious to know what to be on the lookout for with these money grabbing arsewipes.

What has happened with our leccy which is not on prepay is that they now "debit" our leccy account monthly with a mystery estimate sum of their own choosing, which is inevitably higher than what we have actually used, then get arsey with us if we don't pay it right away, even though we're supposed to be on 3 monthly billing.

I actually can't remember off the top of my head. An email did come through but it looked like the bills I was getting so I didn't spot it, IIRC