Energy bills

[Cousin Jack]

What is the standing charge part of our bills supposed to justify.

The costs of the network provider, eg Western Power Distribution, which actually owns and maintains the wires to your house, plus (I think) the costs of the meter provider (who is usually different again).

[Kneerly Down]

I've just realised that if I was using the same amount of oil and electric that I was a few years back I'd be looking at paying £19,500 for it this year.
No wonder I've stocked up on a fair bit of wood and got the insulation a bit better sorted!

[Count Steer]

According to t'papers, 23% of electricity is used by stuff on stand-by and/or keeping their little lights shining. Can't be right can it? Maybe overnight. Possibly. Apparently phone chargers and all the other things with transformers in the plug draw current even when not charging. (Do they?).

Looks like granny was right to switch everything off at the socket every night.

[Horse]

How many 'smart' meters, with little display screens all plugged into the mains, have been distributed?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Transformers presumably have inductive losses in them even when they're not outputting anything useful. The 240V side is always "on" isn't it.

I'm gonna have an experiment! My little smart meter reads down to 10s of Watts I believe, I wonder if it can pick up the effect of me turning phone chargers off.

Mrs D and I don't tend to turn our work computers off at night, we probably should. We just turn the screens off. Every morning our smart meter shows we burned about 20p over night. I kinda assumed it was the fridge but it warrants thinking about.

[Horse]

Mrs D and I don't tend to turn our work computers off at night, we probably should. We just turn the screens off. Every morning our smart meter shows we burned about 20p over night. I kinda assumed it was the fridge but it warrants thinking about.

And

Phone chargers, tv, bt tv box (or whatever), wifi router, oven and microwave clocks, alarm clock, toothbrush charger, gas boiler ... all sitting, sipping little bits of electric!

[Count Steer]

I'm going to do an experiment. We had a pond pump installed recently - it runs 24/7 I'm going to see if I can save what it costs by a) switching stuff off b) replacing the last few halogens with LED bulbs - which I already have and was using as the halogens failed.

I should put a timer on the pump and turn it off at night, but it's tricky to get a timer in the all-weather socket box. Probably needs a bigger box fitting.

[Dodgy69]

I wonder if the meter itself uses power. I fancy a little experiment myself.

[Horse]

I wonder if the meter itself uses power. I fancy a little experiment myself.

If it's creating power, order another 1,000 and harness the output.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm currently paying £100pcm direct debit for my gas and leccy. By way of reference, in the period 24 Feb/24 March I used £98 worth.

I logged in this morning to find that Bulb have arbitrarily increased my DD to £158pcm. My first response is "Fuck off, you can't just do that" (presumably I'm wrong there, 'cause they did ) followed by "I only used £98 in February and it's getting lighter/warmer now".

Obviously the prices are going up, but that seems quite cheeky. Was struck me as really cheeky though is that the system won't let me manually change my DD back down to anything less than £144pcm. This is "to stop you building up lots of debt in winter". That's great and everything, but in Feb I used £98 and in January it was £102 so in summer I'd expect to be several tens of pounds "up". I've spent the last few years doing £60pcm DD and always being in credit. That was pre price increase though of course.

Still pondering what to actually do

[KungFooBob]

I'm going to do an experiment. We had a pond pump installed recently - it runs 24/7 I'm going to see if I can save what it costs by a) switching stuff off b) replacing the last few halogens with LED bulbs - which I already have and was using as the halogens failed.

I should put a timer on the pump and turn it off at night, but it's tricky to get a timer in the all-weather socket box. Probably needs a bigger box fitting.

You need a smartplug, they're usually a lot more compact than the mechanical rotary timers... just as long as it's within Wi-fi/Zigbee range of your router/gateway.

Then you can also set the schedule from your mobile or tell alexa to turn it off, etc..

[Count Steer]

I'm going to do an experiment. We had a pond pump installed recently - it runs 24/7 I'm going to see if I can save what it costs by a) switching stuff off b) replacing the last few halogens with LED bulbs - which I already have and was using as the halogens failed.

I should put a timer on the pump and turn it off at night, but it's tricky to get a timer in the all-weather socket box. Probably needs a bigger box fitting.

You need a smartplug, they're usually a lot more compact than the mechanical rotary timers... just as long as it's within Wi-fi/Zigbee range of your router/gateway.

Then you can also set the schedule from your mobile or tell alexa to turn it off, etc..

Cheers. I didn't realise they were that much smaller. I've got Hive so will investigate that. It's unlikely that the signal from the main router will reach, but I put in a booster/relay to reach the cabin which will. May be an issue operating off that though as it appears as a slightly different address type thingy. Not sure if Hive type devices will operate off a subsidiary?

[KungFooBob]

Is the Hive Wifi or does it connect to a separate gateway device that plugs into your router?

If it's the latter it's probably Zigbee, which will need either an additional gateway or Zigbee booster.

[Hoonercat]

I'm currently paying £100pcm direct debit for my gas and leccy. By way of reference, in the period 24 Feb/24 March I used £98 worth.

I logged in this morning to find that Bulb have arbitrarily increased my DD to £158pcm. My first response is "Fuck off, you can't just do that" (presumably I'm wrong there, 'cause they did ) followed by "I only used £98 in February and it's getting lighter/warmer now".

Obviously the prices are going up, but that seems quite cheeky. Was struck me as really cheeky though is that the system won't let me manually change my DD back down to anything less than £144pcm. This is "to stop you building up lots of debt in winter". That's great and everything, but in Feb I used £98 and in January it was £102 so in summer I'd expect to be several tens of pounds "up". I've spent the last few years doing £60pcm DD and always being in credit. That was pre price increase though of course.

Still pondering what to actually do

The price cap is increasing by 54% on April 1st. As you say, you'll be using less now that spring is here but it will still cost you more per month than last year, and a lot more once next winter arrives.

[Count Steer]

The price cap is increasing by 54% on April 1st. As you say, you'll be using less now that spring is here but it will still cost you more per month than last year, and a lot more once next winter arrives.

If people can submit meter reads on-line, now's the time to do it. Wouldn't want them charging this month's energy at next month's prices eh?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Mines a smart meter, it uploads readings every day.

[Count Steer]

Mines a smart meter, it uploads readings every day.

Mine aren't....and won't be while I have a choice.

[KungFooBob]

Have all the suppliers agreed on a shared standard for them yet?

It used to be that your smart meter became dumb if you changed supplier.

[irie]

Mines a smart meter, it uploads readings every day.

Mine aren't....and won't be while I have a choice.

Ours isn't either, and also won't be while we have the choice ...

[irie]

I'm currently paying £100pcm direct debit for my gas and leccy. By way of reference, in the period 24 Feb/24 March I used £98 worth.

I logged in this morning to find that Bulb have arbitrarily increased my DD to £158pcm. My first response is "Fuck off, you can't just do that" (presumably I'm wrong there, 'cause they did ) followed by "I only used £98 in February and it's getting lighter/warmer now".

Obviously the prices are going up, but that seems quite cheeky. Was struck me as really cheeky though is that the system won't let me manually change my DD back down to anything less than £144pcm. This is "to stop you building up lots of debt in winter". That's great and everything, but in Feb I used £98 and in January it was £102 so in summer I'd expect to be several tens of pounds "up". I've spent the last few years doing £60pcm DD and always being in credit. That was pre price increase though of course.

Still pondering what to actually do

Try to change it down in a few small steps, could be a threshold level thingy.