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

MrCurry said:
Our fridge died (hadn’t been cooling properly for a while), and as it was 19 years old I didn’t try to investigate whether it could be repaired, as I maybe should have done. But anyway, it was a chance to update to a newer, more energy efficient one and because there was a cashback offer making them affordable, we’ve ended up with an LG ”linear inverter“ model which claims to be low energy and is certainly very quiet by comparison.

I’ve been measuring it with my meter and it runs at different power levels according to how much cooling is needed, but it’s often using only 20W in contrast to the old one which was 100W+ when the compressor was running. The LG does run longer at a lower power, so direct comparison is not easy unless you measure the watt hours in a fixed period. I’m pretty sure it’s saving us a useful amount though.
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My 20+ year old fridge-freezer was using over 2kwh a day, the new one uses 0.6kwh, replacing that has been the biggest part of reducing my daily electric use from an average of 5kwh to just 2.5kwh.
 
spitfire said:
This may help, breakdown of how it's getting paid by some companies.

MoneyWeek | Investment advice, analysis, finance news

Intelligent, easy-to-read analysis of the financial news, with practical investment advice and share tips from the UK's best selling financial magazine.
www.themoneyedit.com www.themoneyedit.com
Click to expand...

That doesn't explain it very well for OVO customers.

If you pay your OVO Energy bill by Direct Debit, then the usual discount will be applied directly “shortly after” the initial payment has been made.

However, if you pay on demand, the discount will instead be credited into your account in the first week of each month.
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I pay by DD, what they are actually doing is crediting your bill, then refunding it to your bank account, then deducting it from you bill. 🤷‍♂️
 
cupid_stunt said:
My 20+ year old fridge-freezer was using over 2kwh a day, the new one uses 0.6kwh, replacing that has been the biggest part of reducing my daily electric use from an average of 5kwh to just 2.5kwh.
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That’s amazing! Ours has also moved from being ramed into a niche with no space around it and little ventilation to being free standing on the other side of the kitchen, so hopefully we will benefit from it running cooler too.

It can’t have been good for the efficiency to have had the heat from the back of the fridge just sitting there and soaking back into the fridge thru the insulation.
 
The one thing that seriously bugs me is my broadband router, which according to Virgin & my smart meter, uses 30 watts an hour, so around 0.75kwh per day, that's more than my new fridge-freezer, and about 30% of my current electric use now.

I would like to unplug it overnight, but can't because it would miss out on forced upgrades, and that would in time cause all sorts of problems, and I can't even unplug it during the day, because the system can think there's a fault on the line and slow your speed, in an attempt to keep you connected.

That's the advice from Virgin, BT & Sky, and I guess others too, the broadband providers need to come up with an option for people to turn off their routes when not needed, without screwing things up.
 
2hats said:
That wouldn't be much use - no current reading. Was thinking more of the type of energy monitors that a lot of the power companies used to give away 10-15 years ago, using a current transformer clamp much like this sort of thing
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So I got that device but I have a question

It has four inputs like so

image.jpg

Does that really mean that I just strip back a wire, insert live and neutral into the lower two inputs and then plug the whole thing into the mains?

The other part has black and red wires —does it matter which plugs into which for the top two inputs?

(The only instructions it comes with are basically just a repeat of this wiring diagram!)
 
cupid_stunt said:
The one thing that seriously bugs me is my broadband router, which according to Virgin & my smart meter, uses 30 watts an hour, so around 0.75kwh per day, that's more than my new fridge-freezer, and about 30% of my current electric use now.

I would like to unplug it overnight, but can't because it would miss out on forced upgrades, and that would in time cause all sorts of problems, and I can't even unplug it during the day, because the system can think there's a fault on the line and slow your speed, in an attempt to keep you connected.

That's the advice from Virgin, BT & Sky, and I guess others too, the broadband providers need to come up with an option for people to turn off their routes when not needed, without screwing things up.
Click to expand...
It is usually possible to install a third-party router/modem. That power usage seems huge, so I am sure there are some which are more modest, but I suspect it hasn't been a priority for the people who make/sell these things.

This might be an interesting background read: The UK Electricity Costs of Home Broadband ISP Routers Compared
 
kabbes said:
So I got that device but I have a question

It has four inputs like so

View attachment 347513

Does that really mean that I just strip back a wire, insert live and neutral into the lower two inputs and then plug the whole thing into the mains?

The other part has black and red wires —does it matter which plugs into which for the top two inputs?

(The only instructions it comes with are basically just a repeat of this wiring diagram!)
Click to expand...
Yes, live and neutral in the lower two and the CT coil into the top ones. The CT coil doesn’t have a polarity, as it’s just a coil of wire (through which your load cable passes). Make sure it’s only the live load cable passed through the CT thingy, as if you have live and neutral passing through it the electromagnetic field is going to cancel out (due to there being two opposite currents flowing).
 
cupid_stunt said:
The one thing that seriously bugs me is my broadband router, which according to Virgin & my smart meter, uses 30 watts an hour, so around 0.75kwh per day, that's more than my new fridge-freezer, and about 30% of my current electric use now.

I would like to unplug it overnight, but can't because it would miss out on forced upgrades, and that would in time cause all sorts of problems, and I can't even unplug it during the day, because the system can think there's a fault on the line and slow your speed, in an attempt to keep you connected.

That's the advice from Virgin, BT & Sky, and I guess others too, the broadband providers need to come up with an option for people to turn off their routes when not needed, without screwing things up.
Click to expand...
30W is an astonishing amount - is that really right? It must be getting very warm if it’s dissipating so much power.
 
existentialist said:
It is usually possible to install a third-party router/modem. That power usage seems huge, so I am sure there are some which are more modest, but I suspect it hasn't been a priority for the people who make/sell these things.

This might be an interesting background read: The UK Electricity Costs of Home Broadband ISP Routers Compared
Click to expand...

MrCurry said:
30W is an astonishing amount - is that really right? It must be getting very warm if it’s dissipating so much power.
Click to expand...

A quick google now says 12-15 watts, but I saw the 30 watt figure quoted somewhere before. :confused:

But, when unplugging everything, the smart meter shows zero use, no matter what order I've plugged in & turned on various things, it always goes up by 30 watts when the router is added.

I need to investigate this more.
 
cupid_stunt said:
A quick google now says 12-15 watts, but I saw the 30 watt figure quoted somewhere before. :confused:

But, when unplugging everything, the smart meter shows zero use, no matter what order I've plugged in & turned on various things, it always goes up by 30 watts when the router is added.

I need to investigate this more.
Click to expand...
The most accurate indication would be if you had a power meter like this one plugged in for 24 hours. My router‘s power consumption varies according to whether it’s idle or I’m downloading a big file, so the W can go up and down, but the average Wh measured over 24 hours gives the truest indication of the consumption you’re paying for.
 
Is good point I've not even thought about the router will check it.

Eta: Zen router seems about 5 W which is humane.
 
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platinumsage said:
Suggestion is only a certain base level of usage for households will be price-fixed, any usage above that level will be at higher rates. Hunt specially mentioned incentivizing energy efficiency in his statement today, which the Truss scheme wouldn't have done.
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Ok. I'm at work so just saw a bbc news alert. Can't watch tv atm for details.
 
kabbes said:
Why should a couple in a 6 bedroom house with swimming pool and stables get £5000 worth of subsidy? Makes much more sense to give a fixed subsidy based on average use and say after that, it’s up to you
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It always costs more to police and vet schemes than it does to just give everyone the cash.
 
platinumsage said:
Suggestion is only a certain base level of usage for households will be price-fixed, any usage above that level will be at higher rates. Hunt specially mentioned incentivizing energy efficiency in his statement today, which the Truss scheme wouldn't have done.
Click to expand...
That’s exactly what they should be doing, but only if they give people practical advice and tools to reduce their consumption. Capping bills so those already paying around the threshold amount had zero incentive not to simply leave everything running at max 24/7 was a terrible message environmentally and would tend to push the wholesale prices up if overall energy use rose as a result.

I still don’t see much if any pragmatic, useable consumer advice on how to get your consumption under control. They would definitely get a good return on investment by getting some people working on coming up with that.
 
Artaxerxes said:
It always costs more to police and vet schemes than it does to just give everyone the cash.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be means-testing, no policing and vetting needed, just a different rate on your bill for the first X number of units.

It has cost the government a hugely to offer an unlimited commitment, as the risk involved should gas prices spike has been partly responsible for the recent increase in government borrowing costs.
 
platinumsage said:
It wouldn't be means-testing, no policing and vetting needed, just a different rate on your bill for the first X number of units.

It has cost the government a hugely to offer an unlimited commitment, as the risk involved should gas prices spike has been partly responsible for the recent increase in government borrowing costs.
Click to expand...


The most positive impact they could make and fairest is to cut the standing charge - you use energy you pay for it. The problem is those who can afford it then go off grid and bills still get offloaded to the rest of us.


Should absolutely be better pricing per unit and amounts though, that should be something built into the system.
 
ah ok I thought mine 3 kW for just under an hour - fair point I don't generally fill very high. It may not be heating the whole tank, which I hadn't thought of.
 
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