not a trot
Well-Known Member
Not been able to get an update of our energy usage on the British Gas site since 16th Feb. Smart meter is working ok, but that only displays daily usage. According to BG, it's a temporary technical issue.
My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?
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prunus
Tick tock.
An energy efficient woodburner might be better than an open fire if you do want to burn wood, dessi. Is your chimney lined though?
However I'd wait for someone who knows what they're talking about
Yes if you want to use solid fuel for heating you’ll get up to 9x the efficiency (useful heat output per unit burned) from a closed stove. Modern ones are as much 90% efficient, whereas open fires can be as low as 10% (and not really more than 20%). But even an old second hand stove (ie cheap) will be about 60% which is from 3 to 6 times better than your fireplace will be.
Lining a chimney is not necessarily difficult, provided you can get access to the chimneytop somehow. You can buy kits for it. It needs to be a reasonably straight chimney though - a chimney sweep will be able to tell you - and you’d want to get a sweep in to clean and check the chimneys after opening them up anyway.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
An energy efficient woodburner might be better than an open fire if you do want to burn wood, dessi. Is your chimney lined though?
However I'd wait for someone who knows what they're talking about
eta: my chimney sweep said that he didn't think it would be worthwhile replacing my rayburn with an efficient wood burner because rayburns are actually quite efficient. Not sure I believe that though.
dessiato
🇪🇸 my spirit is crying for leaving
The problem with the chimneys is that they're a few hundred years old. I doubt they're straight, and unlikely to be lined.
I'll have to look into the possibility of a wood burner in the smaller lounge. The larger lounge still needs to be open. It's a very old fireplace and would be ruined with a woodburner.
I'll have to look into the possibility of a wood burner in the smaller lounge. The larger lounge still needs to be open. It's a very old fireplace and would be ruined with a woodburner.
geminisnake
a complex mass of conflicting ideas
Our(mine and mr snake's) usage is the 1520, I was trying to show you what 2 adults actually use, but we don;t have a dishwasher(other than mr snake) or tumble dryer. Dishwashers apparently cost £8 a wash(was looking up leccy saving tips for a friend)
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
not air-to-air heat pump with pipe going out of a window (with conversion kit)? Besides wood costs there's £60 a year chimney sweep costs remember. Worth costing out I'd have thought. I'm going to look at 3-year repayment times.
I think
prunus
Tick tock.
I don’t think that thing about dishwashers can be quite right. A dishwasher program is about 2 hours, they’re on 13A fuses, so they can’t be drawing much more than 3000W, so 3 kWh per hour, or 6 kWh total. Even at the incoming massively inflated rates of 30p/kWh that’s still only £1.80. A tablet is maybe 10p, the water will be negligible.
But I am quite drunk.
WouldBe
Dislicksick
I use mine on a 30 minute program.
My base electric load is around 3kwh a day. When I have the dishwasher on on a Sunday along with 2 loads in the washing machine I only use 6kwh.
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StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
geminisnake & prunus
The £8 in reference to dishwashers / washing machines is, I think, the annual saving of electricity costs if you do one less cycle per week.
[and is for the average, full-size under bench machine]
The £8 in reference to dishwashers / washing machines is, I think, the annual saving of electricity costs if you do one less cycle per week.
[and is for the average, full-size under bench machine]
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
If you look in your dishwasher or washing machine manual, it should give the exact KWh usage for each program. Often a lengthy "Eco" program will use less electricty than shorter programs.
prunus
Tick tock.
Ah so about 16p a wash, that sounds more like it; I imagine that was calculated on the good old days pricing of about 15p kWh so more than that now, but still not much.
High Voltage
In the top 97% of Urban's most interesting posters
Our Miele dishwasher has a state use of .74KWh for the eco cycle and comparing days between dishwasher use and no dishwasher use the electric usage is "about" that. Give or take <.1KWh. With our current price being, say 22p / KWh a dishwash costs ITR 16p as stated above
welovebadgers
Active Member
if you don’t want difficulties selling your house you need to ensure that any installation is building reg compliant and registered with your local planning office or that you have certification that it has been installed by a ‘competent person’, i.e. HETAS compliant. You’ll need suitable ventilation and a carbon monoxide monitor.
I‘ve just sold my house and realised midway through that the open fire I had installed in 2007 was not compliant as per the 2005/2015 guidelines. Cost me £400 to have it checked, backfilled and recertified.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
I got a letter from my electricity supplier today, so I can provide hard figures instead of just my reckons.
Ooofff. I don't think it's as bad as some, but that's quite the fucking hike. Still, I am so glad I told the smart meter wankers to fuck off.
I would agree that the increase in the standing charge is absolute fucking robbery. No justification for that kind of money-grasping shit.
Somebody also raised a very good point earlier about how our prices don't drop whenever we get breathless headlines about how much of our energy mix is produced by renewables on windy days.
Ooofff. I don't think it's as bad as some, but that's quite the fucking hike. Still, I am so glad I told the smart meter wankers to fuck off.
I would agree that the increase in the standing charge is absolute fucking robbery. No justification for that kind of money-grasping shit.
Somebody also raised a very good point earlier about how our prices don't drop whenever we get breathless headlines about how much of our energy mix is produced by renewables on windy days.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Standing charges have always been a fucking scam. If it’s paying for the network then it’s a stealth tax that as usual hits the poorest hardest.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Ok so they moved me to EDF last year I’ve been quietly depressed and hiding from this so it looks like I’ve missed all the good deals because that’s how I cope with trauma. Avoidance.
Looks like my choice with edf now is stay on the variable or get fixed with a years boiler repair for 2 years
Variable suggests I’ll be paying about a tenner more (doubt.jpg) but I’ll hopefully moving in a month or so so the possibility of boiler cover is tempting - that early exit charge though
Not even worth switching providers according to Money Supermarket
Looks like my choice with edf now is stay on the variable or get fixed with a years boiler repair for 2 years
Variable suggests I’ll be paying about a tenner more (doubt.jpg) but I’ll hopefully moving in a month or so so the possibility of boiler cover is tempting - that early exit charge though
Not even worth switching providers according to Money Supermarket
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
It's not a year's free boiler cover, you get six months free but have to pay for the other six months. You make this six months of payments to Domestic & General entirely separately from your electricity bill.
I'd strongly advise not going for those fixed rates - the very hefty early exit fee is an indication of how bad a deal the rates are, as it shows how likely it is you're going to want to pull out at some stage.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Yeah I’m not happy about that early exit. Looks like most other fixed rates have similar, about hundred a year
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
This week is a bad time to fix.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Yes I did note that
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
FWIW, anyone who is a bit techie inclined, and wants the benefits of a smart meter without selling your soul to the power companies, I've just got one of these:I got a letter from my electricity supplier today, so I can provide hard figures instead of just my reckons.
Ooofff. I don't think it's as bad as some, but that's quite the fucking hike. Still, I am so glad I told the smart meter wankers to fuck off.
I would agree that the increase in the standing charge is absolute fucking robbery. No justification for that kind of money-grasping shit.
Somebody also raised a very good point earlier about how our prices don't drop whenever we get breathless headlines about how much of our energy mix is produced by renewables on windy days.
emonPi Energy Monitor
Open-source hardware tools for energy monitoring and visualisation
shop.openenergymonitor.com
As a basic, it logs, and provides a website to view graphs of, instantaneous power consumption, and can do various things with the information beyond just doing a pretty graph.
(oh, and it uses a current transformer, so you don't have to mess around with mains power electrics)
Typical example of display:
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WouldBe
Dislicksick
How many kWh per year?
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
How many kWh per year?
Bear in mind I don't use any gas.
WouldBe
Dislicksick
Electric heating?
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Electric heating?
Unfortunately so. In winter I have the choice of being cold or being poorer. I've invested in a few pairs of woollen long johns which have been a great help so far. I reckon a significant part of the total count will down to the electric boiler though.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I've been contemplating getting our hot water tank a jacket.
Before anyone yells at me !
This would be in addition to the fixed foam insulation ...
But we don't use the immersion heater very often, the tank is fed heat as if it a radiator with one of those 3-way diverting valves ...
[just after we moved here, the CH system ate three diverter valves in quick succession - as in less than a year. It's now on the fourth, and 'touch wood', that one has lasted well].
Before anyone yells at me !
This would be in addition to the fixed foam insulation ...
But we don't use the immersion heater very often, the tank is fed heat as if it a radiator with one of those 3-way diverting valves ...
[just after we moved here, the CH system ate three diverter valves in quick succession - as in less than a year. It's now on the fourth, and 'touch wood', that one has lasted well].
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
I store my jumpers and sweatshirts directly on top of the hot water tank in the airing cupboard. Not sure how effective it is but they don't seem to get all that warm.
High Voltage
In the top 97% of Urban's most interesting posters
Bloody hell . . . I thought that our projected usage of 5200KWh was high . . . shy of 7000KWh!! have you got a grow room on the go??
Do you understand where your energy usage is going . . . I know for a fact that I didn't and it's taken me a week or so just measuring stuff and switching stuff off and on to understand what's using what and how I can reduce my energy without really impacting too much on the quality of living
By using an OWL meter (if I was buying new again, I'd get the upgraded one as that appears to let you stream readings over WiFi) and with a couple of power usage plugs and working round each plug with stuff plugged in I'm starting to understand better
And by reading the actual manuals and looking at power consumption from the various manufacturers websites for each kitchen "white box" and then double checking claimed against actual, some of the things that I feared were power hungry actually aren't that bad but what I thought was a negligible user was pretty major, at least how we were using it
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