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

[kabbes]

This is the design but there seem to be lots with that design but made by different people - possibly sourced from china and different company badges on them. Needs a UK plug as this one has:

UK Plug-in Electricity Power Consumption Meter Energy Monitor Watt Kwh Analyzer | eBay

Total KWh and Cost Display: 0.0-9999KWh, 0.0-9999COST. Overload Setting: when current load power goes beyond the max. load power, the letters "OVERLOAD" on LCD will keep blinking to remind you. Plug: 3-pin UK Plug.

www.ebay.co.uk

On Amazon they all seem out of stock or £27.

You just plug it in and it shows the consumption in W - you may need a torch though it's not bright. Let it run for a day (say for a fridge) and press Mode and it shows consumption in kWh.

Cheers, I have bought one. Let’s see how it goes.

 

[two sheds]

progressively turning off stuff at the consumer unit and checking what consumption is does sound a useful way, too.

 

[_Russ_]

I'm going to see how cheaply I can set up proper data-logging

How will you do that? buy a monitor (expensive) for each appliance or just log 24 hours and move it to the next appliance?

 

[cesare]

Cheers, I have bought one. Let’s see how it goes.

I've bought a similar one too, now that we've moved there are a couple of inherited older appliances that I'm a bit concerned about.

 

[cesare]

progressively turning off stuff at the consumer unit and checking what consumption is does sound a useful way, too.

Yes for sure but (for me) I don't want to turn off the fridge/freezer for 24 hours if I can measure it another way.

 

[gentlegreen]

How will you do that? buy a monitor (expensive) for each appliance or just log 24 hours and move it to the next appliance?

I was disappointed that the cheap plug-in ones don't do that anyway ...
I'm thinking about the future where I want to be logging all sorts of things continually like health metrics ..
Mostly it's just for the sake of doing it.

Ballpark figures are fine in the real world and I have those for very regular habits.

What I will probably focus on for the moment is thermostatic control and timeswitches...

The university where I used to work even had its own weather station for a while ...

 

[Supine]

My octopus bill is £230 per month. One page of their website is saying this will be reduced to £166 in october. On another page it is suggesting an increase to £387. Shambles

 

[weltweit]

Actually I was wrong.

It was £58.00 that lasted me 4 weeks. so £14.50 per week.

I just started with a fresh £50.00 which at £14.50pw should last me 3.45 weeks.

Not so great.

 

[gentlegreen]

With prepayment card tech, are the rates always being adjusted or is there a lot of scamming ?
Where do people actually buy them ?

 

[weltweit]

With prepayment card tech, are the rates always being adjusted or is there a lot of scamming ?
Where do people actually buy them ?

I have prepaid keys for electric and gas and I put money on them at the post office section of my local shop.

There is no way of knowing how many units I have bought, only the amount I have paid. The only way I can estimate how many units I have bought is by seeing how many days/weeks the amount lasts.

It does seem that I am getting less for my money recently, but it is hard to know by how much, because it doesn't seem consistent.

 

[existentialist]

My (£567 in credit) account has just been credited with the £66 from Truss. It all feels a bit unreal.

 

[cupid_stunt]

My (£567 in credit) account has just been credited with the £66 from Truss. It all feels a bit unreal.

I've just checked, and for some reason OVO customers paying by DD, are getting it as a refund to bank accounts rather than a credit to the bills.

 

[gentlegreen]

This is worrying - and having had a shouting match online with someone who was linking to all sorts of gobbledegook from government websites that I couldn't make head nor tail of to justify their claim that energy costs were about to rise by 68 percent, I fully expect people to get into all sorts of trouble ...

Martin Lewis warns 'there is no £2,500 cap on energy bills'

The consumer campaigner has warned people not to think they can keep the heating on all the time in winter without being charged more than £2,500

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

And look at this guff from an "energy expert" from the same rag :-

How much it will cost to put your kettle on to boil from October 1 ?

"With an estimated 95% of British families boiling their kettle at least once a day and 40% of families more than five times a day, the exact costs will vary on the size/power rating of your kettle plus your electric tariff cost," says Matthew Jenkins, energy expert at MyJobQuote. "The average two litre kettle has a power rating of three kilowatts per hour (kWh), although it must be noted that it will never take a whole hour to boil your kettle! Instead, boiling a kettle for an average of four minutes uses 0.225kWh."

 

[Karl Masks]

Perhaps I'm being naive, but I do think the government will have to do something. If only because of the threat to what little remains of the social peace. It's clear the government's cap is simply not going to be enough. There is no way they can allow half the country to sit in the cold and the dark, if only becaise of the effect on productivity, not health or wellbeing. The question is how long will they try and tough it out.

But then, I could be wrong

 

[gentlegreen]

Not that I'm ready to invest in solar, but I thought I ought to start considering my needs for when I am.

I found a site monitoring local installations ...
A local 18KW installation produced 42.5 KWH yesterday - making 2.36 per kw installed - so I could have supplied all my needs with a little over 2kw installed capacity...

Bristol Energy Coop - Site Monitor

Bristol Energy Coop - Site Monitor by SpiralEdge

livegen.bristolenergy.coop

 

[Smangus]

I’ll be gutted if I turn out to have been playing twice as much for electricity as I should have been for years on end. My fault for not keeping a close eye on it before recent rocketing prices. I never knew what was “normal” before, though.

Probably squatters in the flat above nicking it through a hole in your ceiling to a light fitting....

Not that I'd know how this is done obvs

 

[Saunders]

Cheers, I have bought one. Let’s see how it goes.

I also just bought one, to collect tomorrow. I really thought I’d got a handle on what was using all the electricity (the underfloor heating in the conservatory, left on by accident) and have been being quite careful ever since. I have solar PVs so over the summer, was only running the dishwasher or washing machine during the middle of the day and was keeping within 190 units a month. But the last 9 days I’ve used 117 units and I don’t know why. Could be I bought a television and made a few cakes. Dunno.

 

[planetgeli]

I fully expect people to get into all sorts of trouble ...

Perhaps I'm being naive, but I do think the government will have to do something. If only because of the threat to what little remains of the social peace. It's clear the government's cap is simply not going to be enough. There is no way they can allow half the country to sit in the cold and the dark, if only becaise of the effect on productivity, not health or wellbeing. The question is how long will they try and tough it out.

But then, I could be wrong

ALL sorts of trouble. Every kids family I work with will be catastrophically affected by this. Some will go out on the rob. Some will deal more drugs. Some will take more drugs - heroin is very good for beating the cold they tell me.

Unfortunately the burglary will come before the rioting.

 

[dessiato]

We've just taken over my f-i-l's account. There's £1800 of credit in it.

 

[two sheds]

I also just bought one, to collect tomorrow. I really thought I’d got a handle on what was using all the electricity (the underfloor heating in the conservatory, left on by accident) and have been being quite careful ever since. I have solar PVs so over the summer, was only running the dishwasher or washing machine during the middle of the day and was keeping within 190 units a month. But the last 9 days I’ve used 117 units and I don’t know why. Could be I bought a television and made a few cakes. Dunno.

Hope they're ok - I'm impressed with mine, am now using it to try to work out the efficiency of the charger/battery/inverter supply to my computer, and how best to use it in the evening. There's a button for 'cost' but I've not bothered with that. Seems to show time, Watts, Cumulative, current, power factor, and something else I've not worked out yet.

 

[cupid_stunt]

But the last 9 days I’ve used 117 units and I don’t know why.

That's 10kwh per day.

I was using just under 5kwh per day in August, before I started this round of energy saving measures, this month it'll be just over 3kwh per day.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was using just under 5kwh per day in August, before I started this round of energy saving measures, this month it'll be just over 3kwh per day.

you have gas for hot water ?

 

[Saunders]

Hope they're ok - I'm impressed with mine, am now using it to try to work out the efficiency of the charger/battery/inverter supply to my computer, and how best to use it in the evening. There's a button for 'cost' but I've not bothered with that. Seems to show time, Watts, Cumulative, current, power factor, and something else I've not worked out yet.

I’m really dreadfully bad with anything that shows me too much information so I’m hoping mine has a clear display that shows me what each device uses over a day or week. Plus even though I know none of this is difficult, it just never properly registers with me so I need something very simple.

 

[Saunders]

That's 10kwh per day.

I was using just under 5kwh per day in August, before I started this round of energy saving measures, this month it'll be just over 3kwh per day.

Yeah. Where’s it come from?

 

[cupid_stunt]

you have gas for hot water ?

Yes, that was costing around £12pm, but with the new boiler dropped to just £2.45 in Sept.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Yeah. Where’s it come from?

My savings?

Mainly replacing a 20 year old fridge-freezer that was eating around 2kwh a day, the new one only uses 0.6kwh a day and will pay for itself in about 18 months, then using a air-fryer instead of the oven.

 

[two sheds]

I’m really dreadfully bad with anything that shows me too much information so I’m hoping mine has a clear display that shows me what each device uses over a day or week. Plus even though I know none of this is difficult, it just never properly registers with me so I need something very simple.

If it's the same as mine, when you plug in and switch on it shows how long it's been on at the top of the screen (hours and minutes), and the power the equipment is taking (Watts). Press Function and it shows the cumulative power (kWh) since you switched on. I really don't use any of the others - I just keep pressing Function until it gets back to the power the equipment is taking.

It doesn't really register with me either, so I write them down .

 

[Artaxerxes]

Already dialled down my computer use a little

 

[20Bees]

My savings?

Mainly replacing a 20 year old fridge-freezer that was eating around 2kwh a day, the new one only uses 0.6kwh a day and will pay for itself in about 18 months, then using a air-fryer instead of the oven.

What’s the energy rating of the new fridge-freezer? Mine is a Zanussi that will be 31 years old in December and it works perfectly, but I’m starting to look at replacements for when it eventually fails.

When all three adult offspring were living here, plus two of their partners, I used a separate larder fridge plus an ancient chest freezer as well as the tall fridge-freezer. As they gradually moved out I stopped using the chest freezer and the electricity use plummeted, but although it’s now just me here I’d still been using the fridge AND fridge-freezer. At the end of August I switched off the larder fridge and during September I used 159 units instead of the usual 200-ish. Electric cooking, oil boiler. I wonder how much lower it could go with a more energy-efficient model!

 

[Karl Masks]

ALL sorts of trouble. Every kids family I work with will be catastrophically affected by this. Some will go out on the rob. Some will deal more drugs. Some will take more drugs - heroin is very good for beating the cold they tell me.

Unfortunately the burglary will come before the rioting.

Energy is just so fundamental that we don't even really consider it. Not being able to watch TV or netflix is one thing; a simple trope for Tories to use to beat the poor. But not being able to boil a kettle or power a fridge. Most people's landlines, if they have them, are mains powered. Laptop chargers for people filling in their UC diaries. Charging mobile phones. Making emergency calls. Reading a book by nightlight. Having a fucking warm bath. While I agree that criminality will kick in first, people sat in the dark with nothing else to do in a major town or city will fucking burn the place down. The Tories are playing with fire if they think they can let people go this way