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

[two sheds]

I’ve also just given myself a bit of a shock by checking the energy consumption of my fridge. It is a mini (camping type) 240 V fridge that was given to me 20 years ago. It takes 90 W which I knew about but was on almost full time yesterday which I didn’t know about. It took 2 kWh Say 30p/unit that’s 60p a day, 360*60 = £216/year . I’ve actually unplugged it and put contents in a cool bag – I was hoping that a couple of things I’d put in from the freezer would cool it down nicely but apparently not

The freezer on the other hand is newish and even in a warmer room only took 0.3 kWh for the day. So if I can't get the cool bag to work I’m thinking of this for £80 which is similar to others at about 100 kW/year so about £30, which would be repayment time of 6 months. Means I scrap my old fridge but it was old when I got it and it looks like it’s on its last legs anyway.

Ooo 45 years ago in a bedsit I had a cool box made of sort of expanded polystyrene which you poured water in and the evaporation cooled it down. I need something like that again.

 

[MrCurry]

I’ve also just given myself a bit of a shock by checking the energy consumption of my fridge. It is a mini (camping type) 240 V fridge that was given to me 20 years ago. It takes 90 W which I knew about but was on almost full time yesterday which I didn’t know about. It took 2 kWh Say 30p/unit that’s 60p a day, 360*60 = £216/year . I’ve actually unplugged it and put contents in a cool bag – I was hoping that a couple of things I’d put in from the freezer would cool it down nicely but apparently not

The freezer on the other hand is newish and even in a warmer room only took 0.3 kWh for the day. So if I can't get the cool bag to work I’m thinking of this for £80 which is similar to others at about 100 kW/year so about £30, which would be repayment time of 6 months. Means I scrap my old fridge but it was old when I got it and it looks like it’s on its last legs anyway.

Ooo 45 years ago in a bedsit I had a cool box made of sort of expanded polystyrene which you poured water in and the evaporation cooled it down. I need something like that again.

It proves the value of measuring consumption rather than making assumptions. Good that you spotted the excess consumption.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Can anyone help us out here? We've had solar panels for nearly a decade now, and we've just bought a battery and an immersion diverter. This was all planned and arranged before prices went through the roof but it's quite fortuitous. Any excess solar power we have gets stored in the battery until it is full, then gets used to top up the immersion. We're with Octopus. For the time being, during the summer, we are going to stay on their general tariff but there is a tariff called Agile Octopus which allows you to download electricity to your battery at off-peak times when electricity is much cheaper or free or they even, apparently, pay you to download it. The downside is that prices vary in real time, so you may get charged something other than you are expecting. Has anyone got any experience of this?

 

[High Voltage]

The downside is that prices vary in real time, so you may get charged something other than you are expecting. Has anyone got any experience of this?

Surge pricing . . . from the little that I understand I'd avoid anything even sounding like this like the plague, unless, of course, there's an upper limit to how much the prices can be allowed to surge, then ymmv

 

[platinumsage]

I think tariffs like that are great if you're really engaged with it, and would be happy to get an alert on your phone at 3am telling you that you will be paid 2p if you turn the electric heating on for an hour.

 

[danski]

Agile Octopus which allows you to download electricity to your battery at off-peak times when electricity is much cheaper or free or they even, apparently, pay you to download it. The downside is that prices vary in real time, so you may get charged something other than you are expecting. Has anyone got any experience of this?

I’m sure others can help better with your enquiry but please, for the love of all that’s holy, it’s charging your battery, ffs

 

[Chilli.s]

it’s charging your battery

Not syphoning into?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

I think tariffs like that are great if you're really engaged with it, and would be happy to get an alert on your phone at 3am telling you that you will be paid 2p if you turn the electric heating on for an hour.

From what I have seen so far you can set up rules for all this kind of stuff so that you don't get disturbed at inconvenient times. Your standing charge does increase though, so I wonder if the decreased overnight prices get offset by the new standing charge,

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

I’m sure others can help better with your enquiry but please, for the love of all that’s holy, it’s charging your battery, ffs

Early in my morning. Please accept my fulsome apologies.

 

[WouldBe]

Not syphoning into?

You need to connect a pipe to the socket, unscrew the filler caps on the battery and let the electric run into the battery.

 

[teuchter]

Even in the variable rate that would only be just over 10p per kWh instead of the 29p two sheds is getting currently.

Yeah, I thought when I looked at this a while ago, they were offering a better rate than the feed in tariff one, but I must have misremembered/misunderstood.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

You need to connect a pipe to the socket, unscrew the filler caps on the battery and let the electric run into the battery.

I tried doing that when we were with EDF, but their electricity was French and we didn't have an adapter.

 

[two sheds]

Can anyone help us out here? We've had solar panels for nearly a decade now, and we've just bought a battery and an immersion diverter. This was all planned and arranged before prices went through the roof but it's quite fortuitous. Any excess solar power we have gets stored in the battery until it is full, then gets used to top up the immersion. We're with Octopus. For the time being, during the summer, we are going to stay on their general tariff but there is a tariff called Agile Octopus which allows you to download electricity to your battery at off-peak times when electricity is much cheaper or free or they even, apparently, pay you to download it. The downside is that prices vary in real time, so you may get charged something other than you are expecting. Has anyone got any experience of this?

Do you need to if you're charging your battery for free during the day from the panels? What's your consumption during the day that isn't being covered by the panels?

I'm just about to order a similar setup (thanks to all again), and will probably have to switch off the immersion diverter November to April and just heat the immersion on demand, or switch on the immersion override once a week so it reaches 50C for two hours to prevent Legionnaires.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Do you need to if you're charging your battery for free during the day from the panels? What's your consumption during the day that isn't being covered by the panels?

I'm just about to order a similar setup (thanks to all again), and will probably have to switch off the immersion diverter November to April and just heat the immersion on demand, or switch on the immersion override once a week so it reaches 50C for two hours to prevent Legionnaires.

Well it all depends. Days of full sunshine, even in the winter, are usually more than adequate. But days on end of rain, even in the summer, can be crap. Still monitoring the battery usage. It's relatively new and there were some teething troubles, all sorted now.
If cheap, or free, electricity overnight is available then charging the battery overnight might make the immersion diverter a possibility even in winter. I've yet to properly explore how viable that would be.

 

[two sheds]

Yes fair point. You'd better just heating the immersion heater at night direct rather than going through the battery, though?

What were your teething problems with the battery by the way? And are you finding the C100/C10 disparity a problem?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Yes fair point. You'd better just heating the immersion heater at night direct rather than going through the battery, though?

Hadn't thought of that. Ideally you'd want a reliably predictive piece of software that would kick off when electricity was cheap and the next day was certainly going to be overcast or rainy.

What were your teething problems with the battery by the way? And are you finding the C100/C10 disparity a problem?

1. Failed to turn up with the immersion diverter.
2. Smart meters delivered day after installation of batteries ( no one's fault).
3. Immersion diverter delivered. Seemed to work OK.
4. Trip switch on fuse box kept being activated. Turned out the immersion diverter not installed correctly. So they fixed that.
5. Finally we got the software to monitor battery usage.
6. Turned out the batteries were being charged, but weren't discharging, as I had suspected.
7. They fixed that, blaming false information from the manufacturers (probably true).
8. In fixing that they temporarily deactivated the immersion diverter.
9. Which they subsequently fixed.

Not very impressive, but the firm were very apologetic, get good reviews and have been around more than 10 years. So OK in the end.

 

[two sheds]

Adds “software to monitor battery usage” to checklist

Will be interesting to see how 180 Ah of battery storage (2 nights supply) will last given variable light levels during the day. What's your battery capacity (how big is yours?) and what type? Sorry for constant questions.

And yes I'm thinking of checking in to the weather forecast of a morning (I do anyway) to see when light levels will be best for adjusting the timer.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Adds “software to monitor battery usage” to checklist

Will be interesting to see how 180 Ah of battery storage (2 nights supply) will last given variable light levels during the day. What's your battery capacity (how big is yours?) and what type? Sorry for constant questions.

And yes I'm thinking of checking in to the weather forecast of a morning (I do anyway) to see when light levels will be best for adjusting the timer.

This is what we ordered

2 x 2.4Kw Pylon Tech lithium- ion batteries
1 x 3000GX Victron inverter charger.
1 x ET112 meter
1 x 100amp current transformer
1 x Cables and switches
1 x Installation and commissioning.
1 x IBoost immersion controller

 

[MrCurry]

This is what we ordered

2 x 2.4Kw Pylon Tech lithium- ion batteries
1 x 3000GX Victron inverter charger.
1 x ET112 meter
1 x 100amp current transformer
1 x Cables and switches
1 x Installation and commissioning.
1 x IBoost immersion controller

How much did the batteries cost?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

How much did the batteries cost?

The whole shebang just over £5,100. Which I reckon (back of fag-packet calculation) would be paid for in 7 years. That calculation made before the price increases.

 

[Chilli.s]

A friend of mine has a solar panels making electricity and plans to get an electric car to charge up with the surplus and get free milage

 

[MrCurry]

The whole shebang just over £5,100. Which I reckon (back of fag-packet calculation) would be paid for in 7 years. That calculation made before the price increases.

That’s pretty good. The lithium batteries are pricey atm but hopefully with the forecasts for electric car adoption, solar systems will benefit too from economies of scale and falling prices.

I’m sure you’re right about your payback period and it’s only going to get better as the energy prices get worse.

 

[Artaxerxes]

EDF offering a crap 2 fixed year tarrif and saying prices likely to go up again in October.


Ugh.

 

[Rob Ray]

That’s pretty good. The lithium batteries are pricey atm but hopefully with the forecasts for electric car adoption, solar systems will benefit too from economies of scale and falling prices.

Mm maybe don't bet on battery prices falling, there's a global supply shortage of lithium which isn't going away any time soon.

 

[Cat Fan]

EDF offering a crap 2 fixed year tarrif and saying prices likely to go up again in October.


Ugh.

At this point the only thing that can save us from eye watering energy bills is state intervention a la France.

Luckily our government is famous for being in favour of helping the little guy. End sarcasm

 

[planetgeli]

My bill hasn't doubled or tripled - in fact the rate per unit of electricity has stayed the same. My daily standing charge has increased by 150%.

So my supplier obviously whacked up the DD.

I'm now nearly £300 in credit to fucking Eon.

 

[cupid_stunt]

My bill hasn't doubled or tripled - in fact the rate per unit of electricity has stayed the same. My daily standing charge has increased by 150%.

That's weird, my rate went up 37%, and standing charge by 70%.

 

[weltweit]

It is interesting.
I am on a rechargeable key meter, so far my tariff code has remained the same.

 

[Chilli.s]

So my supplier obviously whacked up the DD.

I'm now nearly £300 in credit to fucking Eon.

Funny how the government allows this to happen, wouldnt it be easy to make the energy companies liable to pay interest on credit balances and administration fees if the customer has to chase up repayment

 

[two sheds]

Back to the fridge for the moment - I've got stuff in a cool box at the moment but it's not really satisfactory. Was thinking that I could take stuff out of the freezer at night and put it in a properly insulated cool box like:


but it would soon get scubby so I thought a proper cool box something like:


but they're 50 quid odd so I caved in and have ordered a mini fridge from Currys for £80.

Incidentally all the energy ratings have been upgraded (downgraded?) so what was A+ is now F.

I just bought a 23-inch monitor with a power consumption of 13 W and it's rated as F